The Israel Defense Forces have attacked a number of civilian targets within the final week — together with refugee camps and an ambulance convoy — killing greater than 200 Palestinians, in response to authorities sources in Gaza, as Israel prosecutes its warfare in opposition to Hamas.
The IDF focused the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, which has a registered inhabitants of simply over 116,000, not less than thrice within the final week, as properly as Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances close to the al-Shifa hospital. The IDF claimed duty for the assaults, saying they have been essential to destroy Hamas’s tunnel-based infrastructure; this comes amid rising calls for a ceasefire and mass pro-Palestinian protests in cities all through the world.
The IDF claims it has to date killed 10 Hamas commanders accountable for assaults in opposition to Israeli troops. Hamas is accountable for the devastating October 7 assaults, which killed greater than 1,400 folks in Israel, largely civilians. Hamas remains to be holding round 240 hostages from as many as 35 totally different nations, together with the US, in Gaza. But the full-throated help for Israel from the worldwide neighborhood instantly following the assaults has light considerably as the humanitarian disaster has grown in Gaza. Political leaders, together with US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have each referred to as for “pauses” within the combating to facilitate humanitarian assist deliveries and civilian evacuation within the territory. Israeli officers, together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have dismissed the calls to prioritize civilian security of their operations, saying the assaults in Gaza will proceed till Hamas is defeated and the hostages are returned.
The United Nations has condemned each Hamas’s October 7 assault and Israeli assaults on Gaza, with the UN High Commission for Human Rights warning that Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia “are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes.”
The IDF additionally focused a convoy of ambulances exterior the al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza Friday, claiming that its intelligence indicated Hamas militants have been utilizing the ambulances. Israel maintains that the hospital covers Hamas’s underground command heart, which Dr. Medhat Abbas, director normal of the Gaza Health Ministry, has denied.
The Bureij and al-Maghazi refugee camps have been additionally bombed, on Sunday and Saturday respectively, however the IDF has not commented on these bombings or claimed duty. The Bureij camp was additionally attacked on Thursday.
Global protests present rising demand for a ceasefire
Since the start of the warfare, Israeli strikes have killed almost 9,500 Palestinians, together with virtually 4,000 kids, in response to the Gaza Health Ministry. On Friday protesters in Washington, DC, Berlin, London, and several other different main cities gathered to name for a ceasefire and condemn governments, together with the US, that present Israel with main army help. Protesters in Washington, DC, laid out small white physique baggage with the names of Palestinian kids killed within the airstrikes and marched with a banner displaying the names of individuals killed within the airstrikes.
The Washington march served as a pointy rebuke of Biden, whose polling numbers amongst Arab Americans have dropped precipitously for the reason that starting of the warfare, with many saying they won’t vote for him a second time. An October ballot from the Arab American Institute reveals Biden’s help amongst that group of voters plummeting from 59 p.c in 2020 to simply 17 p.c. That disapproval may show a severe barrier to Biden’s possibilities for reelection only a 12 months from now; as Axios identified, the Midwest, and Michigan specifically, have been essential to Biden’s 2020 win. Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan, have a number of the largest Arab American populations within the nation — and their fury over Biden’s help for Israel may current a significant issue for him in 2024.
On Sunday, Blinken met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who referred to as for a direct ceasefire. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority nominally management the West Bank, the place IDF troopers and armed Israeli settlers have killed not less than 100 Palestinians since October 7. The US has rejected calls for a direct ceasefire, with Blinken saying {that a} ceasefire would “leave Hamas in place to regroup and repeat attacks.”
Netanyahu on Sunday forcefully rejected calls for a ceasefire. “There will be no ceasefire without the return of the hostages. This should be completely removed from the lexicon,” he stated at Israel’s Ramon Air Base. “We say this to our friends and to our enemies. We will simply continue until we defeat them. We have no alternative.”
Blinken and Abbas met within the occupied West Bank as a part of the US push to safe elevated humanitarian entry for Gaza and encourage planning for the Palestinian territories’ post-conflict governance. Though neither the assembly nor Blinken’s go to to the West Bank was introduced till after he had left, Palestinian protesters turned out to sentence the Biden administration’s help for Israel, the Associated Press reviews.
Though Israel’s floor invasion of Gaza has simply began, the IDF probably has restricted time to perform its objectives of destroying Hamas’s army and governing capabilities and returning the hostages, James Jeffrey, former particular envoy to the International Coalition to Defeat ISIS, informed Vox in an October interview. According to Jeffrey, Israel should “really care, as a strategic military issue, [about] civilian casualties and humanitarian issues because that will determine how long you have American support. They only have so much time, even if it’s an existential battle.”