Israel opens aid crossing to Gaza while stepping up bombardment

Intense airstrikes in Gaza as Israel steps up attacks amid communication blackout

CAIRO/ JERUSALEM/ GAZA:

Israel opened a direct crossing for aid into Gaza for the first time on Sunday in its more than two-month-old war on Hamas while also stepping up attacks on the Palestinian enclave, saying military pressure was the only way its hostages would be freed.

The Israeli attacks took place amid fierce fighting the length of the coastal strip, according to residents and fighters, with communications down for a fourth day, making it hard to reach the wounded.

"The communication blackout in #Gaza is the longest since the start of the Israeli escalation," the Palestinian Red Crescent said on X, adding that its teams were also hampered by shelling. Telecommunications were gradually being restored in central and southern areas, telecoms companies said later.

Hopes for peace had been raised on Saturday when a source said Israel's spy chief had spoken on Friday with the prime minister of Qatar, which mediated hostage releases in return for a week-long ceasefire and the freeing of Palestinian prisoners.

Read also: Israel-Qatar meet, raising prospects of Gaza hostage talks

In a further positive sign, the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened for aid trucks on Sunday for the first time since the outbreak of war, officials said, in a move to double the amount of food and medicine reaching Gazans.

But Israel cast doubt on whether the aid would be distributed, accusing aid officials of not distributing aid that had crossed from Egypt, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "fight to the end". Aid agencies say aid distribution has been disrupted by the violence.

Hamas said it would not discuss freeing any more of those captured when its fighters raided southern Israel on Oct. 7 while Israel continues its attacks.

Deadly strikes

Israeli missile strikes on a house belonging to the Shehab family killed 24 people and wounded dozens of others in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Hamas Aqsa radio said, quoting the director of the health ministry.

The son of Dawoud Shehab, spokesman of Hamas-ally Islamic Jihad, was among the dead, an official from the group told Reuters.

A medic said dozens people had been killed or wounded in the Shebab family home and others nearby that were also hit.

"We believe the number of dead people under the rubble is huge but there is no way to remove the rubble and recover them because of the intensity of Israeli fire," he said by telephone, using an e-sim that can connect to outside networks and declining to give a name fearing Israeli reprisal.

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 17, 2023. PHOTO: REUTERS

In Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, medics said 12 Palestinians had been killed and dozens were wounded, while in Rafah in the south, they said an Israeli air strike left at least four people dead.

Israel said it had operated against "terrorist" targets.

Around 19,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health officials, and thousands buried in the rubble of Israeli air strikes since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and captured 240 hostages in their surprise raid.

Israeli losses

Israel's military said on Sunday that 121 soldiers had been killed since the ground campaign began on Oct. 27, when tanks and infantry began to push into Gaza's cities and refugee camps.

Netanyahu read out a letter at his weekly cabinet meeting which he said was written by relatives of dead soldiers.

"You have a mandate to fight. You do not have a mandate to stop in the middle," he quoted them as saying, responding: "We will fight to the end."

The toll is already almost twice as high as during a ground offensive in 2014, a reflection of how far it has pushed into the enclave and of Hamas' effective use of guerrilla tactics and an expanded arsenal.

The Israeli military said its troops had found weapons and a tunnel used by fighters to attack troops in Shejaia, a suburb east of Gaza City in the north, and destroyed a weapons storage facility in the home of a Hamas operative.

New Hamas footage shows IDF Merkava tank getting hit & burning. pic.twitter.com/UCy5xGCIyX

— Clash Report (@clashreport) December 17, 2023

The armed wing of Hamas ally Islamic Jihad said its fighters targeted Israeli forces in northern Gaza City with mortar bombs, while residents said Israeli tanks shelled eastern villages in central Gaza, where fighting has intensified in recent days.

In Khan Younis in southern Gaza, residents reported hearing Israeli planes and tanks bombing and shelling and the sound of rocket-propelled grenades, apparently fired by Hamas fighters.

Medics said Israeli forces had shelled the courtyard of the city's Nasser hospital and surrounding areas, with a new air strike on a school there on Sunday morning.

The Israeli military said it had killed seven "terrorists" in an air strike on Khan Younis and found rocket manufacturing parts and three tunnel shafts near a school used as a shelter. It also said it had struck the local Hamas commander's office and gained control over the central Bani Suheila Square.

Israel says it goes to great lengths to avoid hitting civilians as it seeks to eliminate Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2006 and is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Netanyahu vows to fight until victory

Netanyahu said on Saturday the war in Gaza was existential and must be fought until victory, with the enclave demilitarised and under Israeli security control.

He sidestepped a question on the reported meeting in Europe between his spy chief David Barnea and Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The accidental killing of three hostages by Israeli forces has increased pressure on Netanyahu to secure the release of the others, but Hamas said it would not negotiate any exchange "unless the aggression against our people stops once and for all".

A man uses a bullhorn as people protest following an announcement by Israel's military that they had mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas, at a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, December 15, 2023. PHOTP: REUTERS

In the southern town of Rafah, people rushed to rescue families trapped under the rubble of a building that housed dozens of people, including some from the north who had followed Israeli army warnings to head south to avoid ground operations.

Mahmoud Jarbou', who lives nearby, said the sound of the explosion was "as powerful as an earthquake".

"We were sitting in the house when suddenly shrapnel fell on us and people were screaming and streaming out into the street."