THE The Israeli army is multiplying its strikes in the Gaza Strip todayin the context of the war he declared to “eliminate” Hamas and may, according to him, last “many months” more, despite increasingly intense concerns about the humanitarian situation.

In another sign that the conflict is taking on wider dimensions, the US announced that it had intercepted in the Red Sea drones and missiles launched by Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels, who threaten Israeli interests in a show of “support” for the Gazans.

In the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli armed forces are involved in “battles” in “Khan Younis” (south), as they “expand” their operations in its central part, their spokesman Daniel Hagari said last night.

They ordered the civilians away from the al-Burayj camp and its surroundings. Some have already arrived in Rafah, with luggage on the roofs of cars.

More than 240 people were killed in 24 hours, Hamas’ health ministry said yesterday.

Palestinian bodies were trucked to Rafah where they were buried in a mass grave, an AFP journalist found.

“We received (…) a large number of witnesses. Some were whole corpses, in other cases they were human remains,” said Marwan al-Hams, head of a committee to deal with the health emergency situation in Rafah.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed its “deep concern about the continuous Israeli bombardment in the center of Gaza”, calling for a “distinction” between civilians and fighters.

The Israeli military says its casualties since it began ground operations in the Gaza Strip nearly two months ago, on October 27, stand at 164. Some in the Israeli press consider this figure to be an underestimate.

“We see you”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that his army’s offensive in the Gaza Strip would “intensify”.

Telecommunications remained down in the enclave early today.

“We say to the Hamas terrorists: we see you, we are coming (…) we will intensify the fighting in southern Gaza and elsewhere,” he said after visiting the Israeli space agency.

And yesterday the Israeli Chief of Staff, General Herchi Halevi, warned that operations may last “many more months”, as “the objectives of this war are not easy to achieve”.

Israel’s civilian-military leadership has vowed to “eliminate” Hamas after its military arm launched an unprecedented attack on southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7, when 1,140 people, mostly civilians, were killed. It was the deadliest attack by the state in 1948. Palestinian militants also took about 250 people hostage that day, more than 120 of whom remain captive in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.

Israeli military retaliatory operations in the Gaza Strip have killed 20,915 people, the vast majority of them women, children and teenagers, and wounded another 54,918, according to the latest tally from the Hamas Health Ministry.

The hostilities forced 1.9 million residents of the Palestinian enclave – or in other words 85% of the population – to flee their homes. The small area is now threatened with famine, while most hospitals have been shut down.

Aid diplomacy

Following the adoption last Friday of a UN Security Council resolution calling for the immediate distribution of humanitarian aid “on a large scale”, the UN yesterday named outgoing Dutch minister Sigrid Kaach as coordinator for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it received 41 humanitarian aid trucks and seven new ambulances through the Rafah crossing yesterday. The volume of aid reaching the enclave remains far below the needs, the World Health Organization underlines.

French diplomacy stressed last night that it is “concerned” about the escalation and prolongation of the fighting and called “strongly” for an “immediate ceasefire that will lead to a ceasefire” to be declared.

The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, whose country plays a mediating role and was instrumental in the truce agreed late last month, discussed the situation with US President Joe Biden last night.

The two leaders discussed efforts to “calm down the situation and reach a permanent ceasefire,” Qatar’s diplomacy said in a statement.

In Washington, the US presidency spoke of talks to “release” hostages still held by Hamas, including “American citizens”, and to facilitate the distribution of humanitarian aid.

The Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs is expected to hold talks with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and White House National Presidential Adviser Jake Sullivan.

In late November, a week-long truce allowed the release of 105 hostages and, in exchange, 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, as well as more aid entering the enclave.

But the efforts of the mediators – above all Egypt and Qatar – have so far not allowed an agreement to be concluded for a new humanitarian truce (or “pause”).

From Damascus to Yemen

Concerns that the war will spread are intensifying, mainly due to the actions of organizations close to Iran, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah or Yemen’s Houthis, which, like Tehran, support Hamas.

On the Israel/Lebanon border, Israeli soldiers were injured yesterday Tuesday by Hezbollah fire. While the Shiite Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a drone attack on a ship in the Red Sea and for launching a missile, which was intercepted, in the direction of Israel.

Al-Qahera TV reported that a “flying object” crashed “two kilometers off the coast of Dahab”, an Egyptian resort town about 150 kilometers south of the border with Israel.

The US armed forces, which patrol the Red Sea to protect mainly commercial ships from Houthi attacks, announced yesterday that they destroyed a dozen drones and five missiles of the Shiite rebels.

Attacks attributed to pro-Iranian armed groups against US troops have also multiplied in Iraq and Syria since October 17. In retaliation, the US struck three facilities used by pro-Iranians in the early hours of yesterday morning, killing at least one member.

The incidents followed Iran’s accusation that Israel had killed a senior Revolutionary Guards officer, Razi Mousavi, in a bombing in Syria.

Tehran vowed to avenge his death.