Gaza [Palestine], December 12: Israel's military continues to bombard southern Gaza, and its ground forces and tanks focused fire on refugee camps in the centre of the enclave, after Tel Aviv warned that the war on Hamas may drag on for some time.
Israeli air strikes hammered the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah on Monday morning, offering Palestinians no respite from violence that has killed 18,000 civilians and displaced 1.9 million since the October 7 assault by Palestinian group Hamas on southern Israel that killed around 1,200.
Their plight is unlikely to improve in the near future, as Israel's national security adviser, TzachiHanegbi, said on Sunday that the war may have to be "measured in months".
In central Gaza, Israeli tank shelling resumed on the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps following overnight strikes that produced numerous casualties.
"We're seeing civilians being killed at a historic pace," said Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah. "Maghazi is a densely populated refugee camp in central Gaza . in a very densely populated neighbourhood. Homes were targeted overnight and 23 people were reported killed. Many were injured around those houses that were targeted," he said.
The latest strikes come as those fleeing violence cram into a tiny pocket of southern Gaza near the Egyptian border with scarce food, water or medicine - and the World Health Organization warns Gaza's healthcare system is "on its knees and collapsing".
Despite mounting global calls for a ceasefire, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to press on with the offensive however long it takes to root out Hamas.
He has been bolstered by fresh military support from the White House, which on Saturday said it had skipped congressional review to approve an emergency $106mn sale to Israel of 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition.
With fresh US firepower on the way, Netanyahu on Sunday called on Hamas fighters to lay down their weapons.
Hamas, however, remained defiant, with a senior member of its political bureau saying the group was having success in its fight with Israeli forces and that the "end of the occupation has begun".
Source: Qatar Tribune
