Israel Fights Hamas in ‘Depths’ of Gaza Metropolis, Foresees Management of Enclave’s Safety After Warfare

By Najib Jobain and Samy Magdy

The push into Gaza Metropolis ensures that the already staggering dying toll will rise additional, whereas feedback from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about controlling Gaza’s safety pointed to the unsure endgame of a warfare that Israel says shall be lengthy and troublesome.

Talking in an interview with ABC Information that aired late Monday, Netanyahu mentioned the navy had killed a number of thousand Hamas fighters because the warfare started. The Gaza Well being Ministry’s dying toll doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants — and slain fighters not dropped at hospitals wouldn’t be in its depend.

FLEEING SOUTH

Some arrived on donkey carts, most on foot, some pushing aged kin in wheelchairs, all visibly exhausted. Many had nothing however the garments on their backs. “There isn’t a meals or drink, persons are preventing within the bakeries,” mentioned one man who didn’t need to give his title.

A whole lot of hundreds have heeded Israeli orders to go to the southern a part of Gaza, out of the bottom assault’s path. Others are afraid to take action since Israeli troops management a part of the north-south route.

However bombardment of the south has additionally continued.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a number of properties early Tuesday in Khan Younis. An Related Press journalist on the scene noticed first responders pulling 5 our bodies — together with three lifeless youngsters — from the rubble. One man wept as he carried a bloodied younger woman, till a rescue employee pried her from his arms, saying, “Let her go, let her go,” to hurry her to an ambulance.

AP video at a close-by hospital confirmed a girl desperately looking for her son, then crying and kissing him when she discovered him, half-naked and bloodied, however apparently with out severe accidents. A lady sobbed subsequent to a child on a stretcher, apparently lifeless.

“We had been sleeping, infants, youngsters, aged,” mentioned one survivor, Ahmad al-Najjar, who’s the final director on the Schooling Ministry in Gaza.

Within the city of Deir al-Balah, rescue employees introduced out at the least 4 lifeless and quite a few wounded youngsters from the wreckage of a flattened constructing, witnesses mentioned. “My daughter,” screamed a girl as she ran behind them.

Israel says it targets Hamas fighters and infrastructure and accuses the group of endangering civilians by working amongst them.

At a college in Khan Younis, hundreds of displaced had been dwelling in school rooms and the playground. One among them, Suhaila al-Najjar, mentioned the final month had been full of sleepless nights.

“What’s to come back? How will we reside? Bakeries have closed, there’s no gasoline. What’s going to we eat?” she mentioned.

ISRAEL TO MAINTAIN CONTROL

Netanyahu advised ABC Information that Gaza needs to be ruled by “those that don’t need to proceed the best way of Hamas,” with out elaborating.

“I feel Israel will, for an indefinite interval, can have the general safety duty as a result of we’ve seen what occurs after we don’t have it. After we don’t have that safety duty, what we now have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t think about,” he mentioned.

Netanyahu didn’t clarify what form that safety management would take. The White Home on Tuesday reiterated that President Joe Biden doesn’t assist an Israeli reoccupation of the Gaza Strip after the warfare.

“We do assume that there must be a wholesome set of conversations about what post-conflict Gaza seems to be like and what governance seems to be like,” mentioned White Home Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby, including that he would depart it to Netanyahu to make clear what he means by “indefinite.”

Israeli officers say the offensive towards Hamas will final for a while and acknowledge that they haven’t but formulated a concrete plan for what comes after the warfare. The protection minister has mentioned Israel doesn’t search a long-term reoccupation of Gaza however predicted a prolonged part of low-intensity preventing towards “pockets of resistance.” Different officers have spoken about establishing a buffer zone that will maintain Palestinians away from the Israeli border.

“There are a selection of choices being mentioned for The Day After Hamas,” mentioned Ophir Falk, a senior adviser to Netanyahu. “The frequent denominator of all of the plans is that 1) there isn’t any Hamas 2) that Gaza is demilitarized 3) Gaza is deradicalized.”

In his ABC interview, Netanyahu additionally expressed openness for the primary time to “little pauses” within the preventing to facilitate supply of assist to Gaza or the discharge of hostages. However he dominated out any basic cease-fire with out the discharge of all of the hostages.

HEAVY FIGHTING IN THE NORTH

The navy says it has killed hundreds of Hamas fighters, whereas 30 Israeli troops have been in Gaza because the floor offensive started.

A number of hundred thousand persons are believed to stay within the north within the assault’s path.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Related Press author Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Up to date November 7, 2023 at 3:44 p.m. ET with the most recent particulars.