Israel Bombs Gaza After Hamas Warning’ “No Hostage Will Leave Alive”

The battle was started by Hamas when it launched the worst attack on Israel in history on October 7. Israeli officials claim that 1,200 people were killed in the attack, and roughly 240 hostages were taken back to Gaza.

Following a threat from Hamas that no Israeli hostages would escape the region alive unless its demands for prisoner releases were met, Israel attacked the main city in southern Gaza on Monday.
The battle was started by Hamas when it launched the worst attack on Israel in history on October 7. Israeli officials claim that 1,200 people were killed in the attack, and roughly 240 hostages were taken back to Gaza.

In response, Israel launched a military onslaught that, according to the health ministry operated by Hamas, has left much of Gaza in ruins and claimed the lives of at least 17,997 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children.

Israeli forces attacked Khan Yunis on Monday, according to an AFP correspondent. Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group, claimed to have blown up a house where Israeli soldiers were looking for a tunnel shaft.

The army claimed that on Sunday, there had been intense combat in Gaza City and Khan Yunis, and on Monday, it reported rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.

Following a warning from Hamas on Sunday, Israel would not accept “their prisoners alive without an exchange and negotiation and meeting the demands of the resistance”.

While activists estimate that some 7,000 Palestinians remain detained by Israel, Israel claims that there are still 137 hostages in Gaza.

Gaza’s health system is in danger of collapsing due to months of relentless bombardment and fighting, which has resulted in the closure of the majority of hospitals and the displacement of around two million people.

When AFP inspected the bombed-out remnants of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, they discovered that at least 30,000 Palestinians had sought safety among the debris following an Israeli military strike on the medical center last month.

Mohammed Daloul, 38, who left there with his wife and three kids, said, “Our life has become a living hell; there’s no electricity, no water, flour, bread, and medicine for the children who are all sick.”

Collapsing’ healthcare system

Of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents, the UN calculates that 1.9 million have been forced from their homes; nearly half of these are children.

Israel had advised people to flee to the south, but there weren’t many safe havens for civilians to retreat to after the battle was extended to encompass southern targets.

Humanitarian groups persisted in exerting pressure on Israel to provide enhanced protection for civilians amidst the conflict.

UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories Lynn Hastings denounced on Sunday the inadequacy of mapping software used by the Israeli army in an attempt to lower the number of non-combatant casualties.

“A unilateral declaration by an occupying power that patches of land where there is no infrastructure, food, water, health care, or hygiene are ‘safe zones’ does not mean they are safe,” she stated.

The United Nations humanitarian organization OCHA reports that only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are operating at full capacity.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared, “Gaza’s health system is on its knees and collapsing,” as the organization demanded prompt, unhindered relief supplies.

Israel’s army chief, Herzi Halevi, praised “significant achievements” in the battle and said on Sunday that his troops were using “significant force” in Gaza.

The Hamas military command center in Shejaiya, Gaza City, “underground tunnel shafts” in southern Gaza, and “a Hamas military communications site” were among the more than 250 targets the military claimed to have hit in a single day, according to officials on Sunday.

There are 98 troops reported dead and another 600 injured from the Gaza conflict.

National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi claims that some 7,000 “terrorists” have been murdered.

During a military-organized tour that prevented him from disclosing his surname, Menahem, a 22-year-old soldier who was injured on October 7, told AFP, “Hamas should not exist, because they are not human beings, after what I saw they did.”

‘Undermined’ UN credibility

The Security Council’s “authority and credibility were severely undermined,” according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on Sunday, following the US government’s blocking of a ceasefire resolution on Friday.

“I will not give up,” Guterres pledged to a group of leaders gathered in Qatar.

The top leadership of Hamas is based in Qatar, which stated that it was still working on a new ceasefire similar to the one that it helped broker last month, which saw 240 Palestinian captives and humanitarian aid exchanged for 80 Israeli hostages.

However, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, claimed that Israel’s unrelenting bombardment was “narrowing the window” for success.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken once more dismissed calls for a ceasefire.

“With Hamas still alive, still intact and… with the stated intent of repeating October 7 again and again and again, that would simply perpetuate the problem,” he added to CNN.

But Blinken added that America was “deeply, deeply aware of the terrible human toll that innocent men, women, and children are suffering as a result of this conflict.”

With the regular cross-border exchanges between militants in Israel and Lebanon and the strikes by pro-Iranian groups against US and ally forces in Iraq and Syria, there are concerns of a regional escalation.

Israel carried out strikes close to Damascus late on Sunday, according to Syria’s official news agency, but air defense systems stopped any serious damage.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Hezbollah locations in the Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood and close to Damascus airport were the focus of the strikes.

The Huthi rebels in Yemen, who are supported by Iran, vowed to attack any ships that were sailing toward Israel unless additional aid was let to reach Gaza.

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On Sunday, France reported that two drones fired from Yemen had been shot down by one of its Red Sea frigates.