Marking one month since the Hamas attacks on Saturday, October 7th, when 1,400 people were killed, according to Israel, some in the most brutal fashion, memorial ceremonies were held across the country on Tuesday, while schools devoted lessons in memory of the victims.
A minute’s silence was observed in Tel Aviv, where a table was set for 240 people – the number of hostages, Israelis and foreigners, still reportedly being held inside the Gaza Strip, including eight-year-old Emily Hand, an Israeli-Irish national who was seized from kibbutz Be’eri.
In response to the events of what is now referred to in Israel as Black Sabbath, Israel mobilised 360,000 army reservists and launched a relentless military campaign in Gaza, vowing to destroy Hamas, the militant body that governs the strip.
On day 32 of the war, with northern Gaza already cut off from the rest of the coastal enclave, Israeli forces said they had continued their methodical push into Gaza City, closing in on what was the military and administrative Hamas power centre, capturing command and control headquarters and flushing Hamas fighters from hideouts and from the organisation’s vast tunnel network.
At every stage the Israeli advance is accompanied by massive firepower from the air, from tanks, navy vessels and artillery. “Gaza city is surrounded,” said prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night. “Hamas is discovering that we are reaching places they thought we would never reach.”
Thousands of Gaza residents, some waving white flags, moved south on Monday, away from the fierce battles, escorted by Israeli tanks. Hamas claimed the residents were forced out by Israeli soldiers.
The Hamas-run health ministry reports that more than 10,300 residents have been killed during the one-month military campaign, including more than 4,000 children. Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, World Hospital Organisation director for the eastern Mediterranean, said 15 out of the 35 hospitals in Gaza were no longer working due to direct attacks or lack of fuel.
With the humanitarian crisis worsening the United Arab Emirates is to establish a field hospital in Gaza and Jordan will continue to drop aid packages.
Palestinians claim Israel has deliberately targeted civilians. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilian as human shields.
Mr Netanyahu told the American news network ABC that Israel would have to govern Gaza for “an indefinite period” after the war. “We have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine,” Mr Netanyahu said.
Defence minister Yoav Gallant said this war was different from all others and because of that it would be a long campaign. “At the end of this war there won’t be Hamas as a military-governing organisation in Gaza; there won’t be a security threat from the Gaza Strip; and Israel will retain absolute freedom of action to act in every situation in which there is any sort of threat from Gaza.”
At least 20 rockets were fired from south Lebanon towards the Galilee and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday, with Israel responding with strikes at the source of the fire. More than 20 communities along Israel’s northern border have already been evacuated and tens of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon have also fled north to escape the fighting.
European officials have requested to maintain an open communication channel with Hizbullah in an attempt to deter the Iranian-backed militia from taking any action that would expand the war from Gaza to Lebanon, Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria reported on Tuesday.
