GAZA (AFP) – Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry on Sunday said the death toll in the war-torn Palestinian territory breached 25,000 as Israel pushed its southward offensive and renewed bombardment in the north.
Israel is pressing its push against Hamas in southern Gaza as it seeks to destroy the Islamist militant group responsible for the deadliest attack in the country’s history.
In early January, Israel’s military said the Hamas command structure in northern Gaza had been dismantled, leaving only isolated fighters.
But witnesses told AFP Israeli boats were bombarding Gaza City and other areas in the north early Sunday. Hamas has also reported heavy combat in the north.
“Dozens are still under the rubble,” the Hamas government’s media office said, adding that the dead and injured “could not be transferred to hospitals due to the continued artillery shelling on… Khan Yunis and the Tal al-Hawa area in Gaza City and the north”.
The Israeli army said it “eliminated a number of terrorists” in the main southern city of Khan Yunis and killed 15 militants in northern Gaza over the past day.
Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 25,105 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
In a briefing on Saturday evening, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops had found a tunnel in Khan Yunis where some hostages had previously been kept.
Among the evidence of their presence were paintings, including one by a five-year-old captive, he said.
“About 20 hostages” had been held there at different times “in difficult conditions without daylight… with little oxygen and terrible humidity”.
Soldiers entered the tunnel and fought a battle with militants in which “the terrorists were eliminated”, Hagari said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure to return the hostages and account for security failings surrounding the October attacks.
Thousands protested across Israel on Saturday evening to demand the release of the hostages and early elections to oust Netanyahu.
The United Nations (UN) agency for Palestinian refugees says about 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza, with about one million crowded into the Rafah area.
UN agencies have warned better aid access is needed urgently as famine and disease loom.
Diplomatic efforts have sought to secure scaled-up aid deliveries for Gaza and a truce, after a week-long cessation of hostilities in November saw Hamas release dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Violence has meanwhile surged in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since October 7.
The Israeli military said it demolished two houses in Hebron belonging to two Palestinian gunmen who carried out an attack on a road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in November.
