Netanyahu says this is a time for war, ceasefire will not happen n Israeli tanks roll into southern outskirts of Gaza City, clash with Hamas fighters n More than 3,000 children martyred in Gaza as Palestinian death toll rises to 8,000.
TEL AVIV/GAZA/UNITED NATIONS - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would not agree to a ceasefire, drawing parallels to the United States’ position after Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“I want to make clear Israel’s position regarding the ceasefire. Just as the United States would not agree to a ceasefire after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Israel will not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas after the horrific attacks of October 7,” he said. “Calls for a ceasefire or calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorists, surrender to barbarism, that will not happen,” he added. Netanyahu said while the Bible says there is a time for peace, he said “This is a time for war.” When asked if he has considered stepping down, Netanyahu said the only thing he would resign is Hamas.
“We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history. That’s my goal. That’s my responsibility,” he said. Israeli tanks advanced into the fringes of Gaza City Monday, witnesses said, as it ramped up its war on Hamas, claiming it killed dozens of militants in hundreds of strikes.
“We have hit more than 600 targets in the past 24 hours,” a military spokesperson told AFP, up from 450 the previous day, with Hamas also reporting “heavy fighting” in northern Gaza. “Dozens” of tanks entered Zaytun district on the southern fringes of Gaza City, cutting a key road from the north to the south of the war-torn Palestinian territory, witnesses told AFP.
“They have cut the Salahedin road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it,” said one resident who didn’t give his name, but added they were present on two sections of the road. AFP’s Gaza journalists are not inside Gaza City, following Israeli warnings that the territory’s northern areas must be considered a war zone.
Located on Gaza City’s southern edge, Zaytun -- which normally has a population of over 130,000 -- is the city’s largest district, but the area where the tanks were spotted is relatively sparsely populated.
Dozens of buildings west of the Salahedin road have already been demolished by Israeli strikes in recent days.
Israeli strikes have also razed at least 10 high-rise buildings in Tal al-Hawwa, a district in the city’s southwest, and damaged a Turkish-funded cancer treatment hospital in the same area, its director Sobhi Skeik told AFP.
INCREASED STRIKES
Israel has on several occasions warned the 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to head south to avoid its military strikes.
Although huge numbers have left in recent weeks, tens of thousands more are believed to be still in the zone. Since Friday, Israeli forces have stepped up their ground offensive as part of the military response to the October 7 Hamas attacks that officials say killed 1,400 people, with another 239 people taken hostage. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says more than 8,000 people, mainly civilians and more than half of them children, have since been killed in Israeli air and ground strikes.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Monday as Doha continues to lead negotiations for the release of hostages from Hamas, according to two sources briefed on the call.
“The Secretary reiterated his thanks to the Qatari government for its work to secure the exit of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals from Gaza, the release of hostages held by Hamas, including two American citizens, and continued efforts to prevent the conflict from spreading,” spokesperson Matt Miller said in a readout.
Twenty-six aid trucks have passed inspection and made their way to the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Meanwhile, 34 trucks are still undergoing security checks, and 15 remain to be inspected. In just the past three days, 10 United Nations staff members have been killed in Gaza, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said Monday.
That brings the total number of UNRWA staff killed in Gaza since October 7 to 63, the agency said. The UNRWA, which runs the “largest humanitarian operation” in the Gaza Strip, also described dire conditions at its network of schools that are sheltering displaced Gazans.
“The average number of IDPs (internally displaced persons) per shelter has almost reached four times their intended capacity,” UNRWA added. The number of children reported killed in Gaza during Israel’s military campaign over the past three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed in armed conflict globally in each of the past four years, according to Save the Children. More than 3,000 children have been reported killed in Gaza since October 7 by the enclave’s Hamas-controlled health authorities.
