Dozens of people were killed and wounded yesterday in the continuous Israeli bombardment of various areas of the Gaza Strip, concentrated in the cities of Gaza and Khan Iunis, which raised the number of Gazans killed since October 7 to 25,105, as reported by the Wafa agency, linked to the Palestinian National Authority, citing data from the Gaza Ministry of Health. The total number of injured would be 62,681, mostly women and children. It is believed that thousands of people are under the rubble of bombed houses, like that of independent journalist Karam Ahmed Abu Ajram, 25, who died yesterday in the Abassan al-Kabira area, east of Khan Iunis.
According to Hamas, the fighting was concentrated yesterday in Khan Iunis, a city in the south of the strip, but the Wafa agency reported Israeli shelling in Jabalia, in the north, neighborhoods of Gaza City such as Rimal, Raduan and Al-Nasr, or Deir al-Balah, in the center, were targeted yesterday by the Israeli army. Medical sources said the occupation forces were preventing ambulances from reaching bombed areas.
On Sunday, dozens of displaced people, cans in hand, waited during a distribution of water organized by Doctors Without Borders in Rafah, in the southern tip of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge, AFP found. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, there has been "no progress" in the increase of humanitarian aid deliveries to the besieged territory, and the Israeli Government remains deaf to international pressure for a humanitarian ceasefire.
Hamas yesterday admitted "mistakes" that led to the deaths of civilians during its attack on Israel on October 7. In a rare document of almost 20 pages, Hamas says that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was a "necessary step" and a "normal response" to "all Israeli plots against the Palestinian people". When it offered its "version of the facts" for the first time, Hamas acknowledged that "there may have been mistakes" in the "chaos" caused by the "sudden collapse of the military and security apparatus" on the border between Israel and Gaza However, he denied having attacked civilians, except "by accident and during clashes with the occupying forces".
This attack on military posts, community villages and participants in a music festival resulted in the deaths of more than 1,140 people, mostly civilians. About 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, including about 100 released at the end of November during a brief truce. According to Israel, 132 hostages are still being held in the territory, of whom 28 are believed to have died.
In the document, Hamas demands "the immediate cessation of Israeli aggression", while Israel, which aims to "annihilate" the Islamist movement in Gaza, rejects any end to the fighting without the release of the hostages.
