TELAVIV: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a ceasefire in the Gaza war “will not happen” as it would be “to surrender” to Hamas.
Netanyahu also told a press conference that other countries must give more help in the struggle to free more than 230 hostages seized by Hamas in its October 7 attacks.
He said the international community must demand the captives “be freed immediately, unconditionally”.
Benjamin Netanyahu told his war cabinet today that Israel is making “systematic progress” in its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu said the Israeli army “has expanded its ground entry into the Gaza Strip, it is doing it in measured, very powerful steps, making systematic progress one step at a time”, according to an official video statement.
Meanwhile, the US State Department has said 45 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza on Sunday, bringing the total to 150, and said that progress is being made on ensuring the delivery of essential fuel supplies to Gaza, Reuters reports.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that the US made clear to the government of Israel over the weekend that communications networks in Gaza needed to be restored.
In the ongoing war between the Palestinian group Hamas and the Israeli government, ground fighting broke out inside the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, with Israeli tanks spotted outside the region’s biggest city.
Israel’s intensifying land and air campaign since Hamas’s October 7 attacks has heightened fears for the 2.4 million civilians trapped inside besieged Gaza.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have resulted in at least 8,306 fatalities since October 7 including 3,457 children, 2,136 women, and 480 seniors, as per Al Jazeera.
Palestinian Health Ministry reported that at least 21,048 people have been injured with 1,950 people missing, including 1,050 children.
On Monday, 93 people were killed in Khan Younis today.
Al-Quds Hospital continues to receive constant warnings from the Israeli army to evacuate. Water scarcity has led to widespread outbreaks of waterborne diseases and skin ailments.
Dozens of Israeli tanks rolled into the fringes of Gaza City, eyewitnesses said, after a night of heavy clashes in nearby areas where the army said it had killed dozens of “terrorists” and Hamas also reported fierce fighting.
The Israeli land forces are supported by heavy fire from fighter jets, drones and artillery that the army said had struck more than 600 targets within 24 hours, up sharply from 450 a day earlier.
Concern has surged about the widening humanitarian disaster, with fears centred on Gaza hospitals inside Israeli-mandated evacuation zones where medics warn that many patients cannot be moved.
The army said troops overnight “killed dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels and attempted to attack” while an aircraft struck a building “with over 20 Hamas terrorist operatives inside”.
Columns of Israeli tanks and armoured bulldozers were seen churning through the sand, and Israeli snipers took positions inside emptied residential buildings, in footage released by the army.
Israeli tanks were later spotted on the edges of Gaza City, usually the most densely populated urban area but now emptied of many residents following repeated Israeli evacuation orders.