Israeli forces reached the edge of Gaza’s built-up urban neighbourhoods in a number of areas on Sunday and were also on the Mediterranean shore, north of Gaza city.
The ground phase of the Gaza conflict that began on Friday night will be expanded in the coming days. It will be a slow-moving operation, accompanied by massive fire power and cautious in nature, aimed at keeping the number of Israeli military casualties to a minimum.
The Gaza-run ministry for health on the 23rd day of the war said the number of Palestinians killed has now passed 8,000. Israel reportedly ordered the Gaza city Al-Quds hospital, where more than 10,000 residents were sheltering, to evacuate.
US president Joe Biden told Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a phone call Sunday night that Israel must allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. Thirty-three aid trucks crossed into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday and Israel indicated it will allow 100 trucks in each day to ease the humanitarian crisis. Israel also reopened the second of three water pipelines to Gaza.
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The United Nations refugee agency, UNRWA, reported that thousands of residents broke into aid depots taking flour and other basic supplies.
Speaking after a visit to the Rafah border crossing on Sunday, the International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said the court had opened investigations into alleged crimes committed by both sides in the war.
In relation to aid supplies, he said: “There should not be any impediment to humanitarian relief supples going to … civilians. They are innocent. They have rights under international law … These rights … give rise to criminal responsibility when they are curtailed.”
Israel again urged residents who remain in the northern Gaza Strip to head south for their own safety. The UN estimates that more than one million residents have already been displaced from their homes.
The Israeli military is not providing details of where exactly their forces are operating and how many soldiers have already entered Gaza.
Their aim is to create confusion among Hamas fighters, and this objective was helped by the crash of Gaza’s phone and internet networks during Friday night’s aerial bombardment, although internet was partially restored by Sunday.
Speaking to the nation in a live televised address on Saturday, Mr Netanyahu said the weekend push into Gaza represents the second stage of the war, which aims to destroy Hamas’s capabilities and return the hostages, but he warned that the war to topple Hamas will be long and difficult.
“This is a do or die moment for our nation,” Mr Netanyahu said. “Israel isn’t only fighting its war, but all of humanity’s war against barbarians. Our allies in the Western world and our partners in the Arab world understand that if Israel doesn’t win, they will be next in line.”
Israel’s second major war aim, after destroying Hamas, is the release of as many as possible of the updated figure of 239 hostages who were seized on October 7th when Hamas gunmen stormed across the border, invading 22 Israeli border communities in the south.
Israeli minister for defence Yoav Gallant told representative of the families of the abducted civilians and soldiers on Sunday that Israel’s aggressive campaign is the most effective way to pressure Hamas to agree to a deal to release the hostages.
While the military focus remains on Gaza, Israeli forces remain on full alert along the northern border, concerned that the powerful Iranian-backed Hizbullah may opt to open a second front.
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There was another escalation in cross-border fire on Sunday. More than 50 Hizbullah fighters have already been killed in exchanges of fire over the past three weeks. More than 30 Israeli border communities have been evacuated and an estimated 30,000 residents of south Lebanon have also fled north to escape the fighting.
Elsewhere, residents waving Palestinian flags stormed an airport in the Russian republic of Dagestan in an attempt to reach a flight from Tel Aviv that landed on Sunday. They also searched a hotel looking for Israelis and Jews.
