Day 37 of the Gaza war was marked by fierce clashes which continued in Gaza City as its largest hospital, Al-Shifa, announced it could no longer treat patients and has shut down.
It coincided with some progress being reported on a possible hostage agreement as senior Israeli and American officials said the framework of the emerging deal included the release of 80 women and children.
Hamas on Sunday said, however, it was suspending hostage negotiations because of Israel’s attacks on the hospital, where Israel claims Hamas operates a command centre beneath the compound – an accusation denied by the militant group. The Israeli military has denied attacking the hospital, but said it was fighting Hamas gunmen near the facility.
According to the Israeli military, Hamas has already lost control of northern Gaza; the proof of this, it said, was the massive flow of refugees leaving northern Gaza for the south, despite the organisation’s desire for Gaza residents to remain in their homes. Hamas ministries are no longer functioning and the Hamas leadership has gone into hiding in underground tunnels, it claimed.
Fintan O’Toole: ‘My grandad is dead. I am going to tennis today’: Christmas letters to my son, 1997
Christmas TV and movie guide: the best shows and films to watch
Owen Doyle: Mack Hansen’s ill-advised comments simply cannot be allowed pass without sanction
Eoghan Daltun: Overgrazing eats up the last of Ireland’s ancient rainforest
At the same time, Hamas fighters were continuing to engage Israeli troops, causing casualties, with indications that senior Hamas leaders were still alive. Militant cells are still firing rockets, though at a reduced intensity, while there are no indications Hamas is about to surrender.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 11,000 people have been killed since Israeli attacks began in response to the October 7th Hamas attacks that killed about 1,200 people in Israel – the figure was revised downwards over the weekend from 1,400.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan indicated in a CNN interview on Sunday that president Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority should assume responsibility for Gaza after the war. “There should be unified political leadership across both the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is the political leadership in the West Bank,” he said.
His comments are at odds with the position of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who insisted Israel would retain “overall security control” over the Gaza Strip after the war, and indicated it would not agree to the Palestinian Authority – at least not in its current format – taking power there.
“Overall security control, with the ability to go in whenever we want in order to kill terrorists who could reappear. There will be no Hamas,” he said. “There will be no civilian authority that educates their children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to destroy the state of Israel. There can’t be an authority there that pays the families of murderers. There needs to be something else there.”
Meanwhile, contacts continued for a deal to free some of the 239 hostages. Senior Israeli and American officials said the framework of the emerging deal includes the release of 80 women and children. In return, Israel would release a similar number of Palestinian women and minors being held in Israeli prisons.
Senior Israeli officials said that this deal is also likely to include a pause in fighting for several days and allowing a certain amount of fuel into Gaza. However, officials stressed a deal was not imminent.
One of the hostages is eight-year-old Israeli Irish national Emily Hand, who was seized from kibbutz Be’eri, close to the Gaza border, and was originally believed to have been killed.
On Israel’s northern border tension remains high with both Israel and Hizbullah ratcheting up attacks on a daily basis. Israeli fighter jets and artillery units struck a number of Hizbullah sites in south Lebanon on Sunday in response to missile attacks on the border. “The public will know that Hizbullah has crossed a red line if Israel strikes Beirut,” said Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant.
