Israel says war to wind down in southern Gaza as UN demands ceasefire
GAZA STRIP – Israel on Jan 15 said the “intensive” phase of its war on Hamas in devastated southern Gaza would end “soon” as the UN chief pleaded for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
Hamas announced the death of two of the Israeli captives it abducted during its October attack that triggered the war, in a video Israel condemned as a “brutal use of innocent hostages”.
Fighting has ravaged the Gaza Strip since Oct 7 when Hamas militants carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel that resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel began a relentless military campaign that has killed at least 24,100 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian territory’s health ministry.
The army had stepped up operations and bombardments in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah in recent weeks after saying Hamas’s military structures in the north had been dismantled.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told a news conference on Jan 15 that an “intense manoeuvring stage” due to last around three months “will end soon” in southern Gaza.
He said the stage was already being reached in northern Gaza, with Israel’s army confirming one of its four divisions in the territory completed its withdrawal on Jan 15.
The Cabinet approved an amended 2024 budget including an additional 55 billion shekels (S$19.5 billion) to meet the cost of the war, a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said fighting would still continue for months.
The UN says more than three months of conflict have displaced roughly 85 per cent of Gaza’s population, crowded into shelters and struggling to get food, water, fuel and medical care.
Israel is facing heavy international pressure over Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and growing number of civilian casualties, with the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry reporting 60 deaths in overnight bombardment between Jan 14 and 15.
Deadly violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, exchanges of fire over Israel’s border with Lebanon, and strikes by US forces and Iran-backed Yemeni rebels in the Red Sea have raised fears of an escalation beyond the Gaza Strip.
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Jan 15 reiterated calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, “to ensure sufficient aid gets to where it is needed. To facilitate the release of the hostages. To tamp down the flames of wider war”.