Daily Times

Heavy fighting has raged in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the US blocked the latest international efforts to halt the fighting and rushed more munitions to its ally.

Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a ceasefire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of nearly 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee. But the United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed wide international support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of over 100 million dollars worth of tank ammunition to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US President Joe Biden for the “important ammunition for the continuation of the war” and for supporting Israel at the Security Council. The US has pledged unwavering support for Israel’s goal of crushing Hamas’s military and governing abilities in order to prevent any repeat of the October 7 attack that triggered the war. Hamas and other Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel that day, killing 1,200 people and capturing 240, more than 100 of whom were released during a week-long ceasefire late last month.

In response to the attack, Israel launched a devastating air and ground war that has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians, and forced some 1.9 million people to flee their homes, according to UN agencies. Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV that the US has set no deadline for Israel to achieve its goals of dismantling Hamas and returning all the hostages.

“The evaluation that this can’t be measured in weeks is correct, and I’m not sure it can be measured in months,” he said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN that “we have these discussions with Israel including about the duration as well as how it’s prosecuting this campaign against Hamas. These are decisions for Israel to make”. With only a trickle of aid allowed in, and delivery rendered impossible in much of the territory, Palestinians face severe shortages of food, water and other basic goods. Israeli forces continue to face heavy resistance, even in northern Gaza, where entire neighbourhoods have been flattened by air strikes and where troops have been operating for over six weeks.

In Khan Younis, where ground forces moved in earlier this month, residents said they heard constant gunfire and explosions through the night as warplanes bombarded areas in and around the southern city, Gaza’s second largest. “It doesn’t stop,” said Radwa Abu Frayeh, who lives close to the European Hospital in Khan Younis. “There’s bombing, and then the ambulances head out to bring back victims.”

Israel ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people are believed to have remained there, fearing that the south would be no safer or that they would never be allowed to return to their homes. In recent days, videos and photos have emerged showing the detention of dozens of men who were stripped to their underwear, bound and blindfolded.

The Israeli military says it is detaining people as it searches for remaining pockets of Hamas fighters. Israel’s Channel 13 TV broadcast footage showing dozens of detainees stripped to their underwear with their hands in the air. Several held assault rifles above their heads, and one man could be seen slowly walking forward and placing a gun on the ground before returning to the group. Israeli media pointed to such scenes as evidence that Hamas was collapsing in the north. Men from a separate group of detainees who were released on Saturday told The Associated Press they had been beaten and denied food and water.