Palestine’s president says Gaza is unrecognisable and blames US for prolonging war as Israel says the conflict could last ‘many months’: ‘A war beyond annihilation’
The Palestinian president says Gaza is unrecognizable due to the damage suffered during the Israeli offensive and has blamed the US for prolonging the war.
The attack has killed at least 241 people in the past 24 hours as the war enters its third month.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the conflict in the Gaza Strip as “more than just a war of extermination,” adding that it was unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian people.
Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said the war would continue for “many more months” so that Israel's “achievements are preserved for a long time.”
On an Egyptian TV channel, Abbas said in his first interview since the start of the war that the West Bank could collapse at any time.
The shrouded bodies of Palestinians killed in northern Gaza who were captured by Israel and later released will be buried in a mass grave in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on December 26, 2023.
A general view of the Khalifa Bin Zayed School, destroyed after the Israeli attacks, in Beit Lahia, Gaza, on December 26, 2023
Injured Palestinian people are taken to a hospital after the Israeli attacks on a building in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on December 26, 2023
He accused Washington of prolonging the war by vetoing draft UN resolutions aimed at achieving a ceasefire.
Abbas has called the war a “serious crime” against his people.
Israel says it hit more than 100 locations yesterday, amid reports of impending ground operations in central Gaza.
In the early hours of today, loud explosions were heard from the Gaza Strip across the border with Israel.
Six Palestinians were killed in a nighttime Israeli drone strike in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem in the West Bank, Palestinian medical sources said.
Gaza's Health Ministry said 382 people had suffered injuries in the same 24-hour period.
Footage released yesterday from Gaza City shows IDF soldiers arresting men down to their underwear.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has described the conflict in the Gaza Strip as “more than just a catastrophe.”
Palestinian girls search the rubble of a building after the Israeli bombing of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on December 26, 2023
Palestinians injured in Israeli attacks are taken to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for medical treatment as attacks continue in Deir al Balah, Gaza, on December 24, 2023
The video shows several men standing in front of armed soldiers in the middle of a stadium.
Later, several men are shown on the grass with their hands behind their backs, while others line up with their hands up in front of the troops.
More than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, have been killed since the war began, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters among the dead.
About 1,200 people were killed after Hamas invaded southern Israel on October 7, taking about 240 people hostage. Israel says it wants to free more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza.
Lieutenant General Halevi, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), said at a news conference: “There are no shortcuts when it comes to thoroughly dismantling a terrorist organization other than being stubborn and determined in the fighting.”
“There are no magic solutions,” he added.
A plume of smoke erupts over the northern Gaza Strip during the Israeli bombardment from southern Israel on December 27, 2023, amid ongoing fighting between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas
He vowed to arrest or eliminate the Hamas leadership, even if that took time.
Halevi also noted that the IDF is about to disband all Hamas battalions in northern Gaza.
Israeli and Arab media say Egypt has proposed a ceasefire plan.
According to reports, this would result in the phased release of all Israeli hostages and an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, culminating in the cessation of the Israeli offensive.
Dozens of hostages were released from Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in an earlier temporary ceasefire deal negotiated by Qatar.
But so far both sides have defied calls for a lasting ceasefire.