Israel orders Gazans to move south ahead of ground attack

GAZA: Israel will now step up its bombardment of Gaza in order to reduce the risks to its soldiers when it launches a land assault, military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Sunday. “From today, we are increasing the strikes and minimising the danger,” he said. “We will increase the attacks and therefore I called on Gaza City residents to continue moving south for their safety.”

On the other hand, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the fighting with Hamas could last “months”. “It will take one month, two months, three months, and at the end there will be no more Hamas,” Gallant said at an air force base whose location was not given by the Israeli defence ministry.

Israel has sieged the supply of food, water, fuel, and electricity, and the UN, quoting local authorities, claims that over 40% of all housing has been damaged or destroyed.

Israel has warned more than one million residents of the northern part of Gaza to move south for their safety, and the UN says more than half the enclave’s population is now internally displaced. Bombardment has continued in southern parts of the Strip though, with Hamas authorities reporting nine martyred in an airstrike in Khan Younis overnight.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in and around Gaza City in the north, unwilling or unable to leave. More than 260 people died in 24 hours, according to the health ministry toll, which said 1,873 of those killed in the past fortnight were children.

Meanwhile, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Sunday said 29 of its staff had been killed in Gaza since the outbreak of war between Hamas militants and Israel.

“We are in shock and mourning. It is now confirmed that 29 of our colleagues in Gaza have been killed since October 7,” UNRWA wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after having released a death toll of 17 staffers on Saturday.

A new convoy of 17 aid trucks entered war-torn Gaza on Sunday.

Sunday’s delivery of aid through Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt was the second such operation in two days, with 20 lorries having arrived on Saturday following negotiations and US pressure. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned fuel supplies would run out in three days. “Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance,” Philippe Lazzarini said.

Overnight raids on the Gaza Strip killed at least 55 people, the Hamas government said on Sunday, after Israel announced it was stepping up strikes. “More than 55 martyrs,” the government press office said in a statement on the latest night of bombing in response to the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. Hamas said it had repelled an Israeli ground attack near Khan Younis along Gaza border.

Also, shell fragments from an Israeli tank have hit the Egyptian border, injuring at least seven people including several Egyptian border guards, according to the militaries of both countries. The incident occurred late Sunday, with the Israeli military confirming that it “accidentally” hit the Egyptian position near the border with the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte will visit Israel this week. Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the two leaders “will arrive on Monday and Tuesday” and meet with him.

Meanwhile, hostility between the Israeli army and Hezbollah along the northern border of Israel with Lebanon has pushed the Israeli authorities to order tens of thousands of Israeli residents to evacuate the vicinity. Over the past 24 hours, evacuation orders were issued for 14 towns, while 28 others received similar directives in the preceding week.

These evacuations have evoked a range of reactions among the affected populations. Some residents expressed frustration and skepticism about their safety during the evacuation process.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday Hezbollah will make “the mistake of its life” if it starts a war with Israel. “We will strike it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the significance for it and the state of Lebanon will be devastating,” he warned.

Netanyahu visited troops on the Lebanese border in northern Israel where mounting artillery exchanges have heightened fears of a new war front opening as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli army Sunday said its forces “identified a terrorist cell” attempting to launch anti-tank missiles toward the Avivim area along the border with Lebanon. “Soldiers struck the cell before it was able to carry out the attack,” it said.

The army also said an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli tank “in the area of Har Dov”, in the disputed Shebaa Farms border district. The tank returned fire, the army added, reporting no damage or casualties on the Israeli side.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said Israeli aircraft overflew south Lebanon on Sunday and Israel had bombed various sites along the border.

Hezbollah number two Naim Qassem warned Saturday that the group could step up its engagement. Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus warned that Hezbollah “is dragging Lebanon into a war that it will gain nothing from but stands to lose a lot.

“Hezbollah is playing a very, very dangerous game. They’re escalating the situation. We see more and more attacks every day,” he continued.

“Is the Lebanese state really willing to jeopardise what is left of Lebanese prosperity and Lebanese sovereignty for the sake of terrorists in Gaza?” he added.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Sunday that diplomatic efforts were seeking to “stop Israeli attacks on Lebanon” and prevent the Gaza conflict from growing.

“Lebanon’s friends are with us in continuing to make every effort to return the situation to normal,” Mikati said in a statement. However, Lebanon was developing an emergency response plan “as a precaution”, he added.

The Israeli forces also targeted the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank after announcing intensifying airstrikes on Gaza ahead of a planned ground invasion.

The airstrike targeted a mosque associated with the Jenin Brigade, labelled an “underground terrorist group” by Israel, reported Al Jazeera on Sunday.

According to Israeli sources, the Al-Ansar mosque was associated with the Jenin Brigade, labelled an “underground terrorist group” by Israel and added that they were “neutralised”, without giving details on the number killed in the strike or their identities.

Dozens of people have been martyred in the West Bank since October 7.

On the other hand, Israeli strikes on Sunday put out of service war-torn Syria’s two main airports, state media reported citing a military source, with the transport ministry saying flights were re-routed to Latakia. While Israeli strikes have repeatedly caused the grounding of flights at the government-controlled airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, it is the second time simultaneous strikes have hit the facilities since this month’s conflict between Israel and Hamas began.

“At around 5:25 am (0225 GMT), the Israeli enemy carried out... an air attack... targeting Damascus and Aleppo international airports, leading to the death of a civilian worker at Damascus airport and wounding another,” the military source said in the statement carried by state news agency SANA. The wounded worker later died, state television reported, citing a transport ministry source.

The military source said the “simultaneous” strikes came “from the direction of the Mediterranean west of Latakia and from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan”, according to the statement. “Material damage to the airports’ runways put them out of service,” the statement added. The transport ministry said flights were diverted to Latakia airport.

Meanwhile, China said it believes “force is not a way to resolve” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is once again calling for a ceasefire, its envoy for the Middle East pleaded in Egypt, the foreign ministry said Sunday.

Egypt on Saturday hosted a “summit for peace” where UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for swift “action to end this god-awful nightmare” after two weeks of war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Beijing’s envoy for the Middle East, Zhai Jun, met Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit on the sidelines of the summit. The Chinese diplomat called for an “immediate ceasefire and an end to the fighting as quickly as possible”, his ministry said in a statement. “China believes that force is not a way to resolve the problem and that responding to violence with violence will only lead to a vicious circle of revenge,” Zhai said according to the statement, which mentioned neither Israel nor Hamas.

Meanwhile, demonstrations broke out in different parts of the world in support of the Palestinian people and against the Israel air attacks in Gaza and West Bank, reports international media. Thousands of people rallied in downtown Montreal to show solidarity with Palestinians. The crowd called for an end to Israel’s bombardment, lifting of the siege of Gaza, and freedom for Palestinians.

Thousands of people gathered in Irbid, northern Jordan, closer to the Israeli border. They chanted slogans. There was also a special nightly prayer for the people of Gaza.

Several thousand people gathered in Bosnian capital Sarajevo, waving Palestinian and Bosnian flags and demanding a halt to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. “Genocide, genocide,” some chanted, while a large and prominent banner read: “Yesterday Srebrenica, today Gaza,” referring to the 1995 massacre in the Bosnian town, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two in which Serb forces killed an estimated 8,000 Muslim men and boys.

Thousands of people rallied in the Malaysian capital to express solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza. Protesters gathered in Kuala Lumpur’s Independence Square on Sunday for the rally organised by local NGOs Viva Palestina Malaysia (VPM) and MyCare, which have organised humanitarian assistance for Palestinians. Many protesters wore the keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf, and carried placards calling for peace in Palestine and an end to the United States’ support of the Israeli military.