Israeli military sticks to plan to hammer Hamas

Israeli troops and Hamas fighters engaged on Monday in house-to-house combat in densely populated Gaza.

Israeli troops advance with the cover of armour in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday: Picture: Reuters

Israel pounded Gaza with “significant” strikes on Monday as soldiers battled Hamas forces in the besieged territory, ignoring ceasefire calls by UN aid agencies that condemned surging civilian deaths in the month-long conflict.

Israeli troops and Hamas fighters engaged in house-to-house combat in densely populated Gaza, where the war has sent 1.5 million people fleeing to other parts of the territory in a desperate search for cover.

“We are striking Hamas, and we are going stronghold after stronghold, according to our plan, in a systematic effort to dismantle Hamas from its military capabilities,” Israeli army spokesman ­Jonathan Conricus told CNN.

“We have troops on the ground; infantry, armour, combat engineers. They are striking and they are also directing fire from the air.”

Lieutenant Colonel Conricus said efforts were focused on the “underground infrastructure” network of Hamas tunnels.

People check the damage caused by an Israeli strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in Deir Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday. Picture: AFP

“This strike is like an earthquake,” Gaza City resident Alaa Abu Hasera said, in a devastated area where entire blocks were ­reduced to rubble.

Israel launched a massive bombing campaign on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militants staged the worst attack in Israel’s history. In their October 7 attack, Hamas gunmen killed more than 1400 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 240 others hostage.

The health ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 9770 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israeli strikes and the intensifying ground campaign since the war began.

Israel has distributed leaflets and sent text messages ordering Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to head south, but a US official said on Saturday at least 350,000 civilians remained in what is now an urban war zone.

The health ministry said on Sunday that 45 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, leaving survivors desperately searching through the rubble.

“Are there any survivors?” shouted Said al-Najma, as he tried to shift the blocks of concrete strewn across the road in the camp.

“They brought down an entire street on the heads of women and children without any notice.”

The view from Sderot along the border with the Gaza Strip early on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Deepening the desperation in the crowded territory, the sole border crossing into Egypt was closed on Sunday for a second day in a row, with Hamas suspending the evacuation of foreign passport holders after Israel refused to allow some injured Palestinians to be evacuated. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs confirmed the closure, saying more than 1100 people had been allowed out in the two previous days.

The Israeli army has encircled Gaza City, effectively splitting the territory in two, with “significant” strikes carried out, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said late on Sunday. Shortly before the strikes, internet and phone lines were cut, and the strikes would continue overnight and in the days to come, Rear Admiral Hagari said.

Since Israel sent ground forces into the north of Gaza late last month, “over 2500 terror targets have been struck” by “ground, air and naval forces”, the army said.

Israeli armour on the border with Gaza in southern Israel on Sunday. Picture: AFP

The fighting comes as US ­Secretary of State Antony Blinken presses a whirlwind Middle East tour focused on humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, that has taken him to Israel and the occupied West Bank, as well as to Jordan, Iraq and Cyprus.

Mr Blinken, who has rebuffed calls for a ceasefire and backed ­Israel’s goal of crushing Hamas, met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Sunday.

Mr Abbas denounced “the genocide and destruction suffered by our Palestinian people in Gaza at the hands of Israel’s war ­machine, with no regard for the principles of international law”, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said.

The war has exacerbated tensions in the West Bank, where more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces and in settlers since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

As concern grows at mounting casualties, the heads of all major UN agencies issued a joint statement expressing outrage at the civilian death toll in Gaza and calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.

AFP