© Reuters. Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, December 14, 2023. REUTERS/Sami Abu Tabak
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Fadi Shana
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces and Hamas fought fierce fighting across Gaza on Friday, witnesses said, suggesting Israel’s ground offensive was meeting stiffer resistance as the United States pushed its ally to change strategy which inflicted enormous numbers of civilian deaths.
Residents of the small enclave reported fighting in Sheijaia, Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, Tuffah and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, east of Maghazi in central Gaza and in the center and northern outskirts of the main city from the south of Khan Younis.
Hospitals in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah reported a new influx of dead and injured on Friday morning, including two children. Four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Rafah and Israeli tanks were shelling targets just east of the town near the Egyptian border, doctors and witnesses said.
The Israeli military said in a statement Friday that its forces destroyed a Hamas command and control center in Gaza City’s hotly contested Sheijaia district and carried out a “targeted raid” on militant infrastructure in Khan Younis.
The heavy fighting, confirmed by numerous residents and activist sources contacted by Reuters, raised questions about whether Israel’s two-month air and ground operations in Gaza had significantly weakened Hamas, which it had pledged to annihilate.
“The Gaza Strip turned into a ball of fire overnight, we could hear explosions and gunshots ringing out in all directions,” said Ahmed, 45, an electrician, speaking to Reuters from a shelter in a central area of the densely populated coastal strip.
“They can destroy homes and roads and kill civilians from the air or through indiscriminate tank bombardment, but when they come face to face with the resistance, they lose. We have nothing to lose after all this what they did to our Gaza,” he said.
Relentless Israeli bombardment has destroyed much of Gaza over the past two months, with nearly 19,000 people confirmed dead, according to Palestinian health officials, and thousands more may be buried under the rubble.
Israel launched its offensive in retaliation for a surprise cross-border carnage by Hamas, the Iran-backed group that rules Gaza, whose fighters stormed neighboring Israeli communities, killed 1,200 people and captured 240 hostages on October 7 .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday that Israel would be at war with Hamas “until absolute victory.” According to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, “this will last more than several months – but we will win them and we will destroy them.”
There has been no sign of an end to hostilities, with Israeli claims in late November that they had largely mastered Gaza’s heavily urbanized north appearing to be a pipe dream.
The extension of the ground war after a week-long pause that allowed the release of some hostages has thwarted plans to step up deliveries of basic supplies vital to the survival of civilians whose homes have been destroyed.
More than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced, some multiple times.
THE UNITED STATES WANTS ISRAEL TO CHANGE ITS STRATEGY
Washington has for weeks been pressuring Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, amid global outcry over a growing humanitarian catastrophe, with crippled medical care and widespread inaccessibility of food, fuel and supplies. drinking water, has intensified.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with Israel on Thursday about changing its military strategy in Gaza from a broad ground offensive to precision strikes against Hamas to better protect civilians .
“There was a discussion in these meetings as well as in our previous meetings, as well as in calls between the President (Joe Biden) and the (Israeli) Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu), about some sort of change in ‘the focus on high-pace mine clearance operations, “High intensity mine clearance operations, which are underway now, to ultimately focus at lower intensity on high-value targets, intelligence-led raids, such narrower surgical military objectives,” said a senior U.S. administration official who asked not to be identified.
But it would be “irresponsible” to give specific deadlines for such a change, the official said during a press briefing about Sullivan’s visit to Israel.
Israel says Hamas is using civilians and civilian buildings as shields, an allegation it denies, but its allies and adversaries, as well as the U.N. and humanitarian and rights groups, say Israel has done so. far too little to protect civilians.
Tens of thousands of homeless Gazans who have crowded into Rafah, southern Gaza, since December 3, struggle in extremely crowded conditions, with a lack of latrines forcing many to defecate in the open , thereby increasing the risk of disease, according to the United Nations Humanitarian Office (OCHA). said in an update Friday.
In many places, solid waste was accumulating without a safe means of disposal, and rats and insects were congregating in these areas, OCHA said.
