Gaza:

The Israel-Hamas war entered its 200th day on Tuesday with fears mounting of an Israeli invasion in the overcrowded south of the besieged Gaza Strip amid calls for hostages to be freed.

The Israeli army carried out intense shelling overnight of Gaza City, AFP correspondents and witnesses said, with the military saying it also struck Hamas positions in south Gaza.

Shelling and loud explosions were heard in southwest Gaza and the city of Khan Yunis in the south, while air strikes struck near the Bureij refugee camp and artillery fire hit the Nuseirat refugee camp.

The war erupted when Palestinian group poured across the border with Israel on October 7 in an unprecedented Hamas-led attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,183 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

About 250 people were abducted during the Hamas attack. Israel estimates that 129 captives remain in Gaza, including 34 who the military says are dead.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday called for the captives’ release.

“As long as the hostages are not free, we will not let up,” she said on X. “Only when they are home will peace have a chance.”

As diplomacy aimed at ending the war stalls, key mediator Qatar said Hamas’s political leadership would stay in Doha “as long as their presence here… is useful and positive in this mediation effort”, according to foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari.

The Gulf state, which has hosted Hamas leaders since 2012, said last week it was reassessing its mediation role, fuelling speculation that the Palestinian group could be asked to leave.

Passover ‘pain’

Gaza’s Civil Defence agency said Monday that about 200 bodies were uncovered of people killed and buried by Israeli forces at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, which Israel has yet to comment on.

The United Nations rights office said it was “horrified” by the destruction at Nasser and Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital, the territory’s two largest medical facilities, which were both previously raided by Israeli forces.

Demanding an “independent” probe, UN rights chief Volker Turk noted the “special protection” awarded to hospitals under international law.

“The intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,” he said.

Also on Monday, as Jewish people marked the start of the holiday Passover, Israel’s military intelligence chief, Major General Aharon Haliva, resigned after taking responsibility for failures leading to the October 7 attack.

Public pressure has mounted on the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike a deal that would secure the release of the remaining hostages.

At a rally near Netanyahu’s home in the coastal town of Caesarea, protesters including relatives of hostages set fire to a symbolic table for Passover, also known in Hebrew as the “holiday of freedom”.

Dalit Shtivi — the mother of Idan Shtivi, who was kidnapped from a music festival near Gaza on October 7 — said she was struggling to cope without her son during Passover.

“It’s so hard. I cannot explain the pain. I cannot explain and think of celebrating without him,” she said in a statement.

In a holiday message, Netanyahu has said Israel’s “resolve remains unyielding to see all hostages back with their families”.

Fears for aid ‘lifeline’

Global opposition has mounted over the civilian toll of Israel’s Gaza offensive which has turned vast areas into rubble and sparked fears of famine.

The United Nations says “multiple obstacles” continue to impede delivery of urgently needed aid for Gazans desperate for food, water, shelter and medicine.

But Netanyahu has vowed to press on with a planned offensive on Rafah, the town on the border with Egypt where most of Gaza’s 2.4 million population has sheltered.

Citing Egyptian officials briefed on the Israeli plans, the Wall Street Journal said Israel was planning to move civilians from Rafah to nearby Khan Yunis.

The operation would last two to three weeks and be done in coordination with the United States, Egypt and other Arab countries including the United Arab Emirates, the Journal reported.

Israel would then send troops into Rafah gradually, targeting areas where Hamas’s leaders are thought to be hiding, in a military operation that would last six weeks, it added.

Foreign ministers of the G7 group of developed economies have said they oppose a “full-scale military operation in Rafah” because of the “catastrophic consequences” for civilians, fears shared by many aid groups.

With Rafah also being the main entry point for humanitarian relief into Gaza, an Israeli invasion there “means cutting the aid system off from its lifeline”, said Ahmed Bayram, media adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Middle East.

The war has triggered violence across the region, including near-daily cross-border exchanges between the Israeli army and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group said it launched drone attacks on two northern Israeli army bases on Tuesday, in retaliation for a strike deep into Lebanon that killed a Hezbollah fighter Israel described as “significant”.

Hezbollah announced “a combined air attack using decoy and explosive drones”, though Israel said it had “successfully intercepted” the strike.

The US Senate meanwhile is set to vote Tuesday on an aid package for its allies, including Israel, that is expected to land on President Joe Biden’s desk by the end of the week.

It earmarks $13 billion for Israel’s war with Hamas and more than $9 billion for humanitarian assistance in Gaza “as well as other vulnerable populations around the world”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Hamas on Friday rejected an Israeli order to evacuate 1.1 million civilians south from northern Gaza within 24 hours, ahead of an expected ground incursion that will likely turn the overcrowded Palestinian territory into one of the world’s bloodiest war zones.

“Our people reject the threat of the occupation (by Israeli) leaders and (the) call to flee to the south or Egypt,” the group said. “We are steadfast on our land and in our homes and our cities. There will be no displacement.”

However, the demand to move over a million people at short notice, during a war, has been criticised by the United Nations, which warned Israel of “devastating consequences”. “… impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” the UN said.

READ | Israel Asks Gaza City Civilians To Evacuate, UN Calls Order “Impossible”

The big (and very obvious) concern for aid agencies is – where? And how do you move 1.1 million men, women and children, as well as injured and infirm, while being bombarded by Israeli forces?

Israel has already indicated its willingness to inflict collateral damage, including killing civilians.

READ | “There Will Be Collateral Damage…”: Ex-Israel PM’s Warning To Hamas

The Gaza Strip

Gaza is 41 km long and between six and 12 km wide. It is divided into five areas – North Gaza, Gaza, the Middle Area, Khan Younis, and Rafah. The Strip has two land borders – Israel on its north and east, and Egypt on its south. Both are closed. To its west is the Mediterranean Sea, also closed.

Gazan airspace is controlled by Israel; their airport was destroyed by the Israelis in 2022.

It is, therefore, completely cut off from the world; the narrow 365 sq km patch of land, which is among the most densely populated on the world, relies (almost) entirely on Israel for food, fuel, medicines, drinking water and other essentials, and, to a lesser extent, on international aid agencies.

Israel’s Demand

Israel has demanded 1.1 million Gazans move from North Gaza to southern areas, potentially a 40 km journey in 24 hours, and as far down as Rafah and the border with Egypt.

There are two main entry/exit points on Gaza’s land border through which people are allowed – the Erez Crossing in the north that is controlled by Israel, and the Rafah Crossing controlled by Egypt.

Both have been closed to Gazans looking to flee the fighting. There is a third crossing – Kerem Shalom – which is controlled by Israel also but is normally only used to move goods.

The Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing was bombed even as civilians were looking to flee, raising questions over how serious Israel is about not deliberately targeting non-combatants.

Evacuation Options

There are none, for now.

Israel has already ruled out opening Gazan airspace or allowing aid agencies access via land or sea routes, and with the border crossings controlled by Israeli military, the Gazans are penned in.

READ | Israel Asks Gaza Residents To Flee War Against Hamas, Where’s The Exit?

One (perhaps the only) option are humanitarian corridors to allow civilians an escape route.

Israel has shown no indication it will permit this on its side, which leaves only Egypt. Cairo has so far rejected any move to set up such corridors, security sources in that country said Wednesday.

One of the sources, who asked not to be identified, said this was to “protect the right of Palestinians to hold on to their cause and their land”. Egypt has long restricted Gazans access to its territory.

The Israel – Hamas War

Israel’s expected ground attacks will follow a week of relentless aerial strikes, which have killed over 1,500 people so far, as Tel Aviv extracts revenge for Hamas killing more than 1,200 on October 7.

That those ground attacks are moving closer was reinforced this afternoon after an NDTV exclusive ground report showed tanks and armoured vehicles massing at the Gaza border.

READ | Ground Report: Israeli Tanks Roll Up To Border As Gazans Asked To Move South

These include Namer Infantry Fighting Vehicles, the most heavily armoured in the world, and Merkava IV tanks that have defence systems that can destroy incoming anti-tank missiles.

New Delhi:

The Hamas is a “brain-washed fundamentalist group that has taken Palestinians living in Gaza as hostage and is using them as human shields”, Ron Malka, the ex-Israel envoy to India, told NDTV.

He also said the goal of Israel’s response to Hamas’ attacks – 1,500 gunmen stormed the border and slaughtered over a thousand people – is the “total elimination of military capabilities of Hamas…”

“Don’t make a mistake…”, the Israeli diplomat said, “Hamas is not Palestinian… it is not Islam. They are brain-washed people… only brain-washed people can do these types of things to children, infants” and underlined the Israel government’s intention to “wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth”.

“We will do whatever it takes… they should be eliminated. They should not be part of humanity.”

READ | Signs Israel Planning “Something Big”, Weighing Gaza Ground Assault

“They are a fundamental organisation… a terror organisation. This is a war between the free world and fundamentalists… the free world is fighting for its principle and values,” Mr Malka declared.

The fighting words come as the Gaza Strip – a 365 square km patch of land home to over 2.3 million people – teeters on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Israel’s “complete siege” means the Palestinian territory has run out of fuel, food and drinking water.

READ |Food Shortage, Blackouts Paralyse Gaza As Israel Targets Hamas

Gaza also mains power late last night, triggering a medical disaster as hospitals treating tens of thousands – those injured and suffering from diseases – without power.

READ | Electricity In Gaza Goes Out After Sole Power Station Stops Working

Earlier Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened Hamas to the Islamic State, and said, “Every Hamas member is dead man… we will crush and destroy them as Daesh was destroyed.”

Over 4,000 people have died on both sides since attacks began – with a deadly barrage of rockets that overwhelmed Israel’s famed Iron Dome aerial defence system and killed hundreds in hours.

The dead include civilians – men, women and children – on both sides, and that figure will certainly increase dramatically before the dust settles, particularly since Tel Aviv is prepping for a ground invasion of Gaza and may open a second front after rocket attacks from Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

READ | “No Wreaths Left”: Death Count Spirals As Israel Vows To Crush Hamas

Hamas’ attacks were followed by questions over the failure of Iron Dome and Israeli intelligence networks – seen by many as one of the world’s best – to predict and/or prevent the rocket fusillade.

READ | Explained: How Mossad Functions And Why It Failed To Stop Hamas Attack

On that topic Mr Malka told NDTV, “We will investigate it later. We were caught by surprise… but we are not surprised anymore. We are prepared now. Spirit and unity of Israeli people is remarkable.”

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