On Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on the three-month mark of the Israel-Hamas war to eliminate the Hamas' military framework in the Northern Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip until it attains its goals.
IDF Eliminates Hamas' Military Framework
A picture taken from a position in southern Israel on the border with the Gaza Strip on January 2, 2024, shows destroyed buildings in northern Gaza following Israeli bombardment amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Netanyahu released a statement towards Israel's friends and enemies at the weekly cabinet meeting. He claimed that the war must not be stopped until they have eliminated Hamas, returned all their hostages, and ensured that Gaza would no longer pose a threat to Israel.
In a news conference, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated that the military's top priority was to destroy Hamas in central and southern Gaza.
"The fighting will continue throughout 2024. We are working according to a plan to achieve the goals of the war: to dismantle Hamas in the center and south, and continue all efforts, intelligence and operational, and military pressure, to return the hostages," he said.
The IDF has killed 8,000 Hamas militants and destroyed millions of documents, and thousands of weapons were taken into custody. Hagari added that the Palestinian militants were now operating in the area sporadically without any commanders. Furthermore, gun battles intensified in the central districts of the densely populated Palestinian enclave and the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
According to the health officials in Nasser Hospital, the Israeli strikes on the east and north of Khan Younis killed 50 people on early Sunday. The IDF in the Gaza Strip has killed gunmen loading weapons into a vehicle and destroyed a launch site that fired rockets toward Israel.
Hamas' armed wing said its fighters in the central Gaza Strip had destroyed a troop carrier in the al-Maghazi refugee camp. The IDF reported that Israeli planes opened fire on Palestinian militants, increasing violence in the occupied West Bank outside of Gaza. The Palestinian health officials said that seven Palestinians died in the strike.
According to the police, an Israeli border police officer was killed and others wounded when an explosive device hit their vehicle during operations in the West Bank city of Jenin.
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US Vows to Protect Palestinian Civilians
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently met with King Abdullah on Sunday in Jordan. Blinken emphasized the US opposition to the forcible displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza and the critical need to protect Palestinian civilians in the West Bank from extremist settler violence.
The fighting resulted in the displacement of Gaza's 2.3 million population and the destruction of several civilian infrastructures amid acute shortages of food, water, and medicine. Um Mohamad Al-Arqan said they were hoping that Blinken would look at them with an eye of mercy that would end their misery.
Blinken is scheduled to arrive in Doha to discuss with Qatari leaders efforts to free hostages held by Hamas after an earlier agreement mediated by Qatar broke down.
A US official said that Blinken would also try to press hesitant Muslim countries in the Middle East to help in the reconstruction, governance, and security of the Gaza Strip.
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