Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the war would continue for a “long time”. Although Israeli operations are now focused on the south of the Gaza Strip, fighting will also continue in the north, “perhaps with a lower intensity,” Conricus said. Netanyahu said in a meeting of his cabinet: “The war will be long.” At the same time, he admitted that the war exacted “a very high price” from Israel.
“This is a very difficult morning following a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza,” Netanyahu said on Sunday, referring to recent losses suffered by the Israeli army. “But we have no choice but to keep fighting.” Israel will “continue with full force until the end, until victory, until we have achieved all our goals.”
Video: Fighting in the Gaza Strip
The Israeli army had previously announced that 14 of its soldiers had been killed in the Gaza Strip since Friday alone. Ten of them were killed on Saturday – one of the highest numbers in a single day since Israeli ground operations began in the Palestinian territory on October 27th. According to Israeli figures, a total of 153 soldiers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
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Hamas reported new Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday. Both Jabaliya and the city of Gaza in the north and Khan Yunis in the south were hit. The Israeli army said it had attacked 200 targets in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours. During a search of a nearby school, mosque and clinic, explosive belts specially adapted for children and hundreds of grenades were found.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden once once more called on Israel to protect the Palestinian civilian population. According to the White House, in a conversation with Netanyahu, Biden underscored the “need” to protect civilians and allow people to shelter from the fighting. Those involved in humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory must also be protected.
Netanyahu’s office said in the conversation with Biden that the Israeli head of government had made it clear that Israel would continue the war “until all goals were achieved.”
In a resolution on the Gaza war on Friday, the UN Security Council called for the “safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale”. However, a direct call for a ceasefire is missing from the text, which was intensively negotiated for days.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ major attack on Israel on October 7th. Hundreds of fighters from the Palestinian group, which the EU and the USA classify as a terrorist organization, had invaded Israeli towns and committed atrocities once morest civilians there. According to Israeli figures, around 1,140 people were killed and around 250 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, Israel has been carrying out massive attacks in the Palestinian territory – with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. According to the latest figures from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, more than 20,420 people have been killed so far.
