The Age / Reuters | Nidal al-Mughrabi Arafat Barbakh | 2.1.24
CAIRO/GAZA: Israeli jets have intensified attacks on central Gaza, residents and medics said, as battles raged through the rubble of towns and refugee camps in a war Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would take ‘‘many more months’’ to end.
Netanyahu’s comments signal no let-up in a campaign that has killed many thousands and levelled much of Gaza, while his vow to restore Israeli control over the enclave’s border with Egypt raises new questions over an eventual two-state solution.
The Israeli military will release some reservists who were called up to fight Hamas in Gaza, a move it said would help the economy as the country prepares for a prolonged war.
Airstrikes pounded al-Maghazi and al-Bureij in the centre of Gaza, killing 10 people in one house and driving more to flee to Rafah on the border with Egypt from front lines where Israeli tanks are battling Hamas fighters.
Rockets fired from Gaza raced towards central Israel early yesterday (AEDT), triggering sirens throughout the central and southern parts of the country. Israeli media carried footage of numerous interceptions. There were no reports of any direct hits.
Hamas’ armed wing said the barrage was in response to ‘‘massacres against civilians’’ in Gaza.
The stated goal of Israel’s military is to eliminate Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that launched a surprise cross-border assault on Israeli towns on October 7, killing 1200 people, mostly civilians, and grabbing 240 hostages. Israel’s air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, with many more feared dead in rubble, and pushed nearly all its 2.3 million people from their homes.
The United States, Israel’s main ally, has urged it to scale down the war and European states have signalled alarm at the extent of Palestinian civilian suffering.
However Netanyahu’s comments last week, when he said he would not resign despite opinion polls showing his government is broadly unpopular and defended his security record despite the October 7 attack, indicate that there will be no easing any time soon.
Netanyahu said the ‘‘the war is at its height’’ and Israel would have to retake control of Gaza’s border with Egypt, an area now crammed with civilians who have fled the carnage across the rest of the enclave. Retaking the border could also constitute a de facto reversal of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, raising new questions over the future of the enclave and prospects for a Palestinian state.
Washington said Israel should allow a Palestinian government to control Gaza when the conflict is over. ‘‘We just take a fundamentally different view here in terms of what post-conflict Gaza needs to look like,’’ White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on ABC television.
Israel’s hard-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich fuelled concerns about the offensive’s aims on Sunday by calling for Palestinians to leave Gaza and make way for Israelis who could ‘‘make the desert bloom’’. That clashed with the official Israeli government position that Gazans will be able to return to their homes.
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