Israel must take full control of the Gaza Strip's border corridor with Egypt to ensure the "demilitarization" of the area, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today, as the Israeli army pushed deeper into central and southern Gaza, Reuters reports.
Speaking at a news conference, Netanyahu said: "The Philadelphia Corridor - or more precisely, the southern closure point (Gaza) - must be in our hands. It must be closed. It is clear that any other arrangement would not provide the demilitarization we seek."
He did not specify. If achieved, such a move would mark a de facto reversal of Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, placing the enclave under sole Israeli control after years of being ruled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Philadelphia Corridor is a narrow strip of land, 14 kilometers long, that runs along the entire border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
An Israeli woman who was recently freed by Hamas from captivity in Gaza said that she was sexually assaulted by her kidnapper and that she lived in fear while she was a hostage.
Mia Shem, a 21-year-old citizen of Israel and France, was kidnapped on October 7 from a music festival in southern Israel during an attack by Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said tonight that more time is needed to win and that the war against Hamas will continue for many more months.
At a press conference in Tel Aviv, he reiterated that the fight will continue until all goals are achieved, above all the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages.
Gaza "will not be a threat to Israel," Netanyahu promised, adding that there would be no "terrorists" there.
Alluding to international pressure to end the war, the Israeli prime minister expressed gratitude for US support for Israel, including arms deliveries and a position in the UN Security Council.
In war, he said, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) acts to ensure "maximum protection" for its soldiers and Israel "fights on all fronts".
"More than 8.000 terrorists have been killed and the military capabilities of Hamas are being destroyed step by step," the Israeli leader added.
He announced that security will also be restored along the northern border with Lebanon in the area attacked by the Lebanese extremist Hezbollah, so residents who were evacuated from there will be able to return.
"We will fight with all means until we restore security for the citizens of the north," Netanyahu said.
Turning to Iran, he assessed that that country leads the "axis of evil" and aggression against Israel "on various fronts and threatens the entire free world."
In this context, he vowed to "do everything to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."
Netanyahu also said he would not resign, hinting that he intends to stay on as prime minister after the fighting in the Gaza Strip ends.
Support for Netanyahu was already shaken before the war, and when the war began on October 7 with unprecedented attacks by Hamas in southern Israel, it plummeted even more.
Judging by the latest polls, 70 percent of Israelis think he should resign.
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About half of the buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed in the war between Israel and Hamas, including nearly 70 homes, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
The paper refers to analyzes and satellite photos of the Gaza Strip and other remote sensing methods.
According to reports, factories, places of worship, schools, shopping centers and hotels, among other buildings, were demolished.
Israel claims that many schools, mosques and other buildings were hit because they were used for military purposes and as bases of operations for terrorist organizations in Gaza.
The Wall Street Journal reports that only eight of Gaza's 36 hospitals are receiving patients and that the most basic infrastructure, including water, electricity and communications, has been destroyed.
University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape said that the word "Gaza" will go down in history along with Dresden and other famous cities that were bombed.
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The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) did not have a plan to respond to massive attacks by Hamas like those on October 7, the New York Times reported today.
Current and former officials spoke to the American newspaper about the failures of the Israeli army that day, when the war between Israel and Hamas began.
"There was no defense plan for a surprise attack," said Amir Avivi, former deputy commander of the Gaza division.
"The army doesn't prepare for things it thinks are impossible," added Israel's former national security adviser Yakov Amidror.
A New York Times report said the military was unaware of the scale of the attack for hours, and responded slowly and ineffectively, sending too small teams ill-equipped to respond to a massive cross-border incursion backed by rocket fire from Gaza.
He also recalls the attack by Hamas on the base of the Gaza Division and assesses that it was crucial to the success of the "Hamas" because they disabled the unit responsible for coordinating all military activity in the region.
Without directives and orders, many units used applications like Vocap (WhatsApp) and Telegram to gather information about targets and people who needed help.
Israel is expected to launch a major investigation into the failures that enabled the October 7 attacks.
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The Palestinian Islamic Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, today condemned the "urgent" sale of US weapons and equipment to Israel in the amount of 147,5 million dollars.
"It is a clear proof of the US administration's full support for this criminal war," Hamas said in a statement.
The administration of President Joseph Biden "clearly supports and actively supports the crimes committed by Israel," the statement added.
Those "crimes" led to the "merciless killing of children and civilians, the forced displacement of residents and the systematic destruction of civilian life" in the Gaza Strip, Hamas said.
On October 7, Hamas commandos led attacks by Palestinian extremists on the south of Israel, in which 1.140 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to Agence France-Presse.
About 250 people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza, where 129 hostages are still being held.
After that, the war started and in the continuous bombing of the Gaza Strip and the subsequent ground offensive, 21.672 people were killed, mostly women, minors and children, according to the data of the Ministry of Health there.
As the number of casualties in Gaza rises, the image of the US is tarnished in the international community as it continues to support Israel.
In early December, Washington similarly approved the sale of nearly 14.000 120mm shells for Israeli Merkava tanks participating in the offensive against Hamas.
"The United States is committed to Israel's security, and it is critical to American national interests to help Israel develop and maintain a strong self-defense capability," the State Department said.
Despite the once-strained relationship, Washington remains Israel's main supporter, providing $3,8 billion in military aid annually since 2016.
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Israeli warplanes attacked two refugee camps in the central part of Gaza today, at a time when even a brief cessation of hostilities seems unattainable.
A senior Palestinian Hamas official told The Associated Press in Beirut that the organization would not budge from its position that a permanent ceasefire be the starting point for any further release of hostages from Gaza, contrary to Egypt's recent proposal for a phased end to the war.
Hamas's request is likely to be rejected by Israel, according to the Associated Press.
Israel has pledged that the unprecedented air and ground offensive will continue until Hamas is destroyed, a goal some see as unattainable because the extremist organization is deeply entrenched in Palestinian society.
US President Joseph Biden's administration, meanwhile, has approved new emergency arms sales to Israel despite ongoing international calls for a ceasefire amid rising civilian casualties, hunger and mass displacement in the Gaza Strip.
In addition to continuing to supply Israel with weapons, the US diplomatically protects its ally.
Israel argues that ending the war would mean a victory for Hamas, and the Biden administration shares that view, while at the same time calling for more to be done to avoid harming civilians.
The Nuseirat and Bureij camps were attacked last night and today.
One resident of Nuseirat stated that "the occupier (Israel) is doing everything to make people leave."
Late last night, the home of journalists from TV Al-Quds, affiliated with Islamic Jihad, whose members, together with Hamas extremists, participated in the attacks on the south of Israel on October 7, after which the war began, was targeted in that camp.
The journalist and six members of his family were killed in the attack.
A resident of the Bureij camp said that shooting was heard last night, and that airstrikes followed today.
As Israeli forces advance in Khan Younis in the south and camps in central Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled in recent days to Rafah on the border with Egypt, the enclave's southernmost city.
There are now numerous tents and makeshift shelters on the once barren land on the western approach to Rafa next to the UN warehouse.
On Friday, the US State Department said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken notified Congress of the sale of $147,5 million worth of military equipment to Israel, including fuses, charges and primers needed for 155mm shells purchased earlier.
It is the second time this month that the Biden administration has bypassed Congress to authorize emergency arms sales to Israel. The reason given was "the urgency of Israel's defense needs".
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The Ministry of Health in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip announced today that 21.672 people have been killed in Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory since the war began on October 7.
In the last 24 hours, 165 people died and 250 were wounded, the same sources said.
It was also stated that since October 7, 56.165 people have been wounded.
Only one percent of the wounded were evacuated abroad via the Rafa border crossing towards Egypt, the ministry pointed out.
Among the victims are 312 people who took care of the wounded, 99 of whom were detained by the Israeli army. They are still detained among thousands of other Palestinians.
Detainees are exposed to "physical and psychological torture, hunger, thirst, they are deprived of sleep and are under constant investigation and in the cold."
Last week, the Israeli army issued allegations of torture, as testified by former detainees.
A total of 23 hospitals and health centers are no longer functional due to Israeli army bombing and 104 ambulances were destroyed.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza today called on the international community to send more medical aid and facilitate the evacuation of more wounded.
It also called for "urgent measures" to protect hospitals in the Palestinian territory.
In the attack on the south of Israel on October 7, around 1.140 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to Agence France-Presse data based on Israeli information.
Having pledged to destroy Hamas, Israel began bombing the small enclave and launched a ground offensive on October 27 that has so far killed 168 soldiers.
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In the past 24 hours, about 100 Palestinians were killed and 158 wounded in Israeli attacks in central Gaza, a senior Palestinian health official said.
The Red Crescent published online footage of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, the largest and most important medical facility in the southern Gaza Strip, showing ambulances circulating through devastated neighborhoods and destroyed streets, transporting wounded and injured children, Reuters reports.
Earlier today, the Palestinian Ministry of Culture announced that Israeli strikes had destroyed a medieval public bath, recalling that the old Grand Mosque had also been hit by Israeli bombs before.
Conflict between Israel and Hamas - 85th day.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced this morning that they neutralized dozens of Hamas operatives in Gaza City in yesterday's attacks.
The Israeli military said it carried out air and sea strikes on operative cells and infrastructure across the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reported.
Two buildings used by Hamas in northern Gaza were destroyed and large quantities of military equipment, including bombs, weapons and communications equipment, were seized.
The Palestinian side reported last night and this morning Israeli tank fire and bombardment in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
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