Beniamin Netanyahu took the offensive in Gaza another step this Monday, and there have already been several steps in recent days. The Israeli premier stepped on the front lines of the war to put in black and white that the war will continue. “The recruits on the fringe ask me to continue until the end,” he said later.
Was anyone thinking about a ceasefire? He does not.
“Everyone asked me for one thing: we must not stop. And we don't stop. We continue fighting and will increase the fighting in the coming days. “This will be a long battle and it is not close to being over,” he defended before members of his party in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
In recent days, the prime minister has insisted on the firmness of his decision to continue the war to end Hamas at any cost. Even despite the criticism that some of the relatives of the 129 hostages in the hands of Hamas have already launched, due to its consequences.
Netanyahu also seeks to nip in the bud any speculation about a new ceasefire, which Israel has been using in recent days.
And on the ground he puts facts.
Yesterday Israel was investigating the death of at least 100 people in the Al Maghazi refugee camp, in the center of the strip, after an attack by its Defense Forces, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. But in the last 24 hours, 250 people have died, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 20,674.
It's been 80 days of war. And after a bloody weekend, early this Monday local authorities in the strip reported that 12 people had died near the small village of Zawaida (center); another 10, all from the same family, in Khan Yunis (south); and during Christmas night from Sunday to Monday, Israeli airstrikes left 78 dead, making it the deadliest night in the enclave.
Local testimonies and the media, moreover, indicate that Israel is intensifying the air and ground offensive against the Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza and close to Zawaida. And also against that of Nuseirat, further north.
And attacks are also intensifying in the north, according to all available information, although this past Saturday the Israeli Chief of Staff indicated that his forces had largely achieved operational control of northern Gaza.
Nothing yet speaks of a truce.
This Monday morning the Israeli army announced the death of two new soldiers and there are already 156 casualties since the beginning of the ground offensive in Palestinian territory on October 27. And Hamas leaders remain unaccounted for.
Islamic Jihad, which fights with Hamas in Gaza, for its part rejected a truce and exchange of prisoners with Israel, according to Egyptian sources on the Qatari network Al Jazeera. Not a day after considering it.
The Pope denounced this Monday in his traditional Christmas message “the desperate” humanitarian situation of the Palestinians in Gaza, asked for the release of hostages, and pressed for a ceasefire. But nothing comes.
Most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes and the United Nations reiterates that conditions in the strip are catastrophic with a lack of water and food as fighting intensifies and the front stretches from the north to the south of the enclave.
The United States pushes for more surgical operations.
