Palestinians go to the graves of individuals killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and buried contained in the Shifa Hospital grounds in Gaza City, on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023.

Mohammed Hajjar/AP

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Mohammed Hajjar/AP

Palestinians go to the graves of individuals killed in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and buried contained in the Shifa Hospital grounds in Gaza City, on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023.

Mohammed Hajjar/AP

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed not less than 35 individuals Sunday, hospital officers mentioned, as preventing raged throughout the tiny enclave a day after Israel’s prime minister mentioned the war will continue for “many more months,” resisting worldwide requires a cease-fire.

The army mentioned Israeli forces had been working in Gaza’s second-largest metropolis, Khan Younis, and residents reported strikes within the central area, the most recent focus of the almost three-month air and floor warfare that has now engulfed a lot of the territory.

The warfare has raised fears of a broader regional conflagration. The U.S. army mentioned Sunday that its forces shot and killed several Iran-backed Houthi rebels after they tried to assault a cargo ship within the Red Sea, an escalation in a maritime conflict linked to the warfare in Gaza.

Israel says it desires to destroy Hamas’ governing and army capabilities in Gaza, from the place it launched its Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. The militants killed some 1,200 individuals and took 240 others hostage after breaking by means of Israel’s intensive border defenses, shattering its sense of safety.

Israel’s unprecedented air and floor offensive has killed greater than 21,800 Palestinians and wounded greater than 55,000 others, based on the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The warfare has sparked a humanitarian disaster, with 1 / 4 of Gaza residents going through hunger, based on the United Nations. Israel’s bombardments have levelled huge swaths of the territory, making components uninhabitable and displacing some 85% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

Israel presses on

Israel expanded its offensive to central Gaza this week, concentrating on a belt of dense, built-up communities that home refugees from the warfare surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948 and their descendants. The preventing has pushed a lot of the inhabitants south, the place individuals have flooded shelters and tent camps close to the border with Egypt, at the same time as Israel has additionally struck these areas.

In the realm of Zweida in central Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed not less than 13 individuals and wounded dozens of others, based on witnesses. The our bodies had been draped in white plastic and specified by entrance of a hospital, the place prayers had been held earlier than burial.

“They were innocent people,” mentioned Hussein Siam, whose family had been among the many useless. “Israeli warplanes bombarded the whole family.”

Officials from Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah mentioned the 13 had been amongst 35 our bodies obtained on Sunday.

The Israeli army mentioned it was battling militants in Khan Younis, the place Israel believes Hamas leaders are hiding. It additionally mentioned its forces working within the city Shati refugee camp, in northern Gaza, discovered a bomb in a kindergarten and defused it. Hamas continued to launch rockets towards southern Israel.

Israel has confronted stiff resistance from Hamas because it started its floor offensive in late October, and the army says 172 troopers have been killed throughout that point.

The day after for Gaza

The magnitude of the destruction in Gaza coupled with the warfare’s size has raised questions on whether or not Israel can achieve its objective of dismantling Hamas and what would come after.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has mentioned Israel should maintain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip. At a information convention Saturday, he mentioned the warfare would proceed for “many more months” and that Israel would assume management of the Gaza facet of the border with Egypt.

“(It) must be in our hands, it must be sealed. It’s clear that any other agreement will not guarantee the demilitarization that we need and require,” Netanyahu mentioned. Israel says Hamas has smuggled weapons from Egypt, however Egypt is prone to oppose any Israeli army presence there.

Netanyahu has additionally mentioned he will not enable the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority, which administers some components of the West Bank, to take part in any future rule over Gaza, placing him at odds with President Joe Biden’s administration, which has supplied essential army help for the offensive.

The U.S. desires a unified Palestinian authorities to run each Gaza and components of the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to eventual statehood. The final Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down over a decade in the past, and Israeli authorities since then have been staunchly against Palestinian statehood.

Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu has repeatedly dodged holding conferences together with his War Cabinet in regards to the post-war potentialities.

Israelis protest

Israelis, who nonetheless largely stand behind the warfare’s targets, are displaying indicators they’re shedding persistence.

On Saturday night time, hundreds took half in one of many largest demonstrations in opposition to Netanyahu because the warfare started. The nation, which is sharply divided over the long-serving chief and a judicial overhaul plan he set in movement earlier than the warfare, has remained largely united since Oct. 7.

“It is true that the state of Israel has many enemies and threats, but unfortunately today Prime Minister Netanyahu and his continued rule is the most significant existential threat to our country and our society,” mentioned protester Gal Tzur.

A separate protest Saturday referred to as for the discharge of the estimated 129 remaining hostages held by Hamas. Families of hostages and their supporters have demanded that the federal government prioritize hostage releases over different warfare targets, and have staged giant protests each weekend.

Egypt, one of many mediators between Israel and Hamas, has proposed a multistage plan that might kick off with a swap of hostages for prisoners, accompanied by a brief cease-fire. An identical deal in November noticed Hamas free over 100 hostages and Israel launch 240 Palestinian prisoners.

But the perimeters nonetheless seem removed from putting a brand new deal. Both Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group say no extra hostages will likely be freed till Israel ends the offensive and withdraws from Gaza.