Israeli forces carried out fresh airstrikes Tuesday in multiple parts of the Gaza Strip as the country’s military chief said the conflict will likely go on for many more months.
"There are no short cuts in dismantling a terrorist organization," army chief Herzi Halevi said Tuesday referring to Hamas militants.
The Israeli military said it attacked more than 100 targets, including tunnel shafts and sites used by Hamas militants to organize attacks against Israeli forces.
Residents reported airstrikes and shelling in the areas of the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza.
U.N. officials expressed concern Tuesday about the recent deadly Israeli military strikes in Gaza.
"We are gravely concerned about the continued bombardment of Middle Gaza by Israeli forces, which has claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives since Christmas Eve," said UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in comments to members of his Likud party Monday, said Israel needs to apply military pressure against Hamas if it is to succeed in freeing the remaining hostages held by the militant group.
“We are expanding the fight in the coming days, and this will be a long battle and it isn’t close to finished,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also outlined similar parameters in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, reiterating his government’s position that Hamas must be destroyed, the Gaza Strip must be demilitarized, and Palestinian society must be deradicalized.
The White House said Israel’s Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer was meeting with Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan Tuesday for talks on a number of matters related to the conflict in Gaza and the return of hostages held by Hamas.
The Israeli offensive, which has included thousands of airstrikes in addition to ground operations, has left vast parts of Gaza in ruins and killed 20,600 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The fighting has also displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, with many trying to find safety in overcrowded, U.N.-run shelters in southern Gaza.
Hamas militants poured into the Gaza border on October 7 and attacked southern Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israel. The group, designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and others, also seized around 240 hostages, of whom 129 remain in Gaza.
In response, Israel vowed to crush Hamas and launched an air, land and sea offensive on Gaza.
Israel said Hamas is to blame for the high civilian death toll, citing its use of crowded residential areas and a system of tunnels throughout the enclave.
Egypt Monday proposed a plan to end the current conflict with a cease-fire, a phased hostage release and the formation of a Palestinian government of experts to administer the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, according to a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat familiar with the proposal.
Israel and Hamas were cool to the initial proposal but stopped short of an outright rejection, leaving open the possibility of a new round of diplomacy between the two long-standing enemies.
The Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the proposal, said the details were worked out with the Gulf nation of Qatar and presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments, according to The Associated Press.
VOA’s Mykhailo Komadovsky contributed to this report. Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Forum