Israel claims to be finished with Hamas in northern Gaza
Israel has announced the dismantling of Hamas's "military framework" in the northern Gaza Strip after three months of war. Although the Islamist group's infrastructure has been destroyed, preventing the possibility of large-scale attacks, battles are still possible in the area, as well as sporadic rocket fire, army spokesman Daniel Hagari has warned.
- At least 70 journalists have been killed in Gaza
- Hezbollah steps up attacks on Israel in response to killing of Hamas number two
- Blinken: if the war expands it will cause "more insecurity and suffering"
After achieving the objective in northern Gaza, troops are now focusing on dismantling Hamas in the centre and south of the enclave. Hagari said the central cities are "dense and full of terrorists", while Khan Younis in the south contains an "underground city of branching tunnels".
The IDF reports intensive fighting in southern Gaza's Khan Younis overnight, with the Israeli Air Force carrying out strikes on some 30 "significant" Hamas targets in the area.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) January 8, 2024
According to the IDF, the targets included underground sites, weapons depots. and other infrastructure… pic.twitter.com/54nKafSLJD
Due to the complexity of the terrain, Israel is preparing for a long war with fighting that will continue throughout 2024 in order to completely eliminate Hamas's infrastructure in Gaza and find its leaders, hidden in tunnels underground in the south of the enclave.
Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif are the main targets, although the IDF, together with the Shin Bet intelligence agency, has managed to eliminate 8,000 terrorists and some of the leaders who orchestrated the 7 October massacres, such as Ismail Siraj, and his deputy, Ahmed Wahaba, who were recently killed in an air strike in central Gaza. Siraj was the commander of the Nuseirat battalion, responsible for the attacks on Kibbutz Be'eri and other border communities now evacuated by the war.
The IDF has announced that it has killed the commanders of the Hamas battalion that carried out the Be’eri massacre on October 7th.
— (((Emanuel Miller))) 🇮🇱 (@emanumiller) January 6, 2024
The commander of Hamas’s Nuseirat battalion, Ismail Siraj, and his deputy, Ahmed Wahaba, were killed in an airstrike this evening in the Gaza… pic.twitter.com/sLzQeOXB3V
The IDF claims to be working on new defences along the Gaza border to allow citizens to return to their homes. In both the south and north - due to Hezbollah attacks - thousands of Israeli civilians have been evacuated from their homes.
This conflict is also taking a heavy military toll on Israel. So far, 176 soldiers have been killed during clashes with Hamas in Gaza. Approximately 3,000 members of the security forces have been injured since the Hamas attack on 7 October. Nearly 900 of them are soldiers wounded since Israel began its ground offensive, according to defence ministry figures reported by AP.
The war, which began after a Hamas offensive that left 1,200 people dead and more than 200 kidnapped, has also killed more than 22,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Thousands more are believed to be buried under rubble and wounded. Israel blames Hamas for the high number of civilian deaths in Gaza, accusing the terrorist group of using Gazans as "human shields".
At least 70 journalists have been killed in Gaza
Two more journalists have been killed in Gaza in recent hours, Hamza Wael Dahdouh - son of Al Jazeera's Gaza correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh - and Mustafa Thuria, a video editor for AFP and a worker for the Qatari media.
Both journalists were travelling in a car with another reporter who was injured and, according to the IDF, a "terrorist operative who was operating a plane in a way that put troops at risk", the IDF Spokesperson's Unit told The Times of Israel.
At a press conference in #Doha, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) said he was 'deeply, deeply sorry' over the killing of Hamza Dahdouh, son of Al Jazeera's Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh. pic.twitter.com/0SGkSZHS0V
— Doha News (@dohanews) January 8, 2024
Wael Al-Dahdouh has become the face of the war in Gaza through his coverage of the dire situation in the Palestinian territory. Dahdouh also lost his wife, two other children and a grandchild last October in an Israeli air strike.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that at least 70 Palestinian journalists, as well as four Israeli and three Lebanese, have been killed since 7 October.
Hezbollah steps up attacks on Israel in response to killing of Hamas number two
As Israel intensifies its military operations in central and southern Gaza, tension is rising on the northern front due to clashes with Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite group launched one of the largest attacks on Israeli territory this weekend in "initial response" to the assassination of Hamas's number two in Beirut. One of the 62 missiles launched by Hezbollah hit the air traffic control base on Mount Meron.
On Saturday, Hezbollah hit the Israeli Air Force base in Meron. The attack damaged the radar in the installation but did not incapacitate it. pic.twitter.com/G4kiTcTzvH
— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) January 7, 2024
Israel has responded to the attacks by eliminating several Hezbollah members. In this regard, the Israeli army chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Herzi Halevi, indicated that military pressure on Hizbollah - a Hamas ally - was increasing and would be effective. Otherwise, he warned, "we will get into another war".
IDF strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after anti-tank missile lands in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel pic.twitter.com/55nlOxXH0Q
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) January 8, 2024
Blinken: if the war expands it will cause "more insecurity and suffering"
The latest developments on the Israel-Lebanon border coincide with a new visit to the Middle East by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The head of US diplomacy highlighted the risk of the conflict spreading regionally, causing "more insecurity and suffering", during a press conference in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
I met with Emirati President @MohamedBinZayed in Abu Dhabi today to discuss efforts to prevent the conflict in the region from widening and address humanitarian needs in Gaza. I underscored our continued commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. pic.twitter.com/gujTpSNmvW
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) January 8, 2024
Blinken has already visited Jordan, Turkey, Greece and the United Arab Emirates. He will then travel to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the West Bank.
