Israeli forces bombarded targets in the south, north and centre of Gaza on Monday ahead of an expected announcement by Hamas on the fate of three Israelis held hostage by the Palestinian militant group shown in a video clip at the weekend.
Twelve Palestinians were killed and others wounded in an Israeli airstrike overnight on a house in Gaza City in the north, health officials said, while plumes of smoke rose above the main southern city of Khan Younis shelled by Israeli tanks.
Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Press Agency SAFA reported fierce clashes between Hamas militants and Israeli forces in Khan Younis, while Israeli tank barrages were also reported near the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi refugee camps in central Gaza.
In the Al-Nusseirat refugee camp, local journalist Doaa El-Baz showed footage of what had once been the street where she lived. “This whole neighbourhood is destroyed. Not a single house has been spared,” she said, standing before mounds of rubble.
“They killed all our dreams here. The house where I grew up and spent all my childhood,” Baz said, her voice trembling. Communications across the narrow coastal Gaza Strip remained severed for a fourth consecutive day, residents said.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it had killed two Palestinian fighters in an airstrike on their vehicle as it was transporting weapons in Khan Younis, and also raided a Hamas command centre in that city and struck two arms caches. The three hostages are among some 240 seized by Islamist Hamas militants.
That Hamas assault, in which Israel says more than 1,200 people were killed, prompted an aerial and ground blitz by Israeli forces that over 100 days since has turned much of Gaza into a wasteland and killed, health officials say, some 24,100 people and wounded nearly 61,000.
Health officials said 132 were killed in the past 24 hours, suggesting to Palestinians that there has been little let-up in the intensity of Israel’s offensive despite its announcement of a shift to a new, more targeted phase.
Israel adds $15bn for war in budget
Jerusalem: Israel’s cabinet on Monday passed a disputed 2024 state budget with amendments adding 55 billion shekels ($15 billion) of spending after over three months of war with Hamas, the finance ministry and Prime Minister’s Office said.
With Israel’s war against the Palestinian Islamist group passing 100 days on Sunday, the amended budget will include more money for defence and compensation for those impacted by the conflict, along with higher allocations for healthcare, police, welfare and education.
“We changed the priorities so that every reservist and every fighter and his family knows that there is a government that stands behind him and fully takes care of him,” finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said after the vote.
The approval came after more than 24 hours of debate in which a vote was delayed by ministers unhappy with the level of budget cuts to some ministries meant to offset extra war spending.
Reuters
