Tens of thousands of families in both Israel and Palestine are still grieving the loss of their loved ones on Sunday, 100 days after Hamas’s unexpected attack on southern Israel triggered a massive Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
Despite the repeated calls from the international community for an end to the ongoing violence and a return to peace, the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has shaken the Middle East’s geopolitical landscape, shows no signs of abating anytime soon.
More than three months into the conflict, Israel withdrew some of its troops from the Gaza Strip in response to U.S. demands to scale back large-scale ground and aerial operations and protect civilians in the Palestinian enclave.
On Jan. 7, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the Wall Street Journal that the Israeli army will soon switch from the “intense maneuvering phase of the war” to “different types of special operations” in northern Gaza.
Israel’s ground operations and bombardment, while less intense than before, are still going on, with a focus on the southern region of the Gaza Strip, where a large part of the population is stranded after being displaced from the north and elsewhere.
The number of injured Palestinians has so far surpassed 60,000 and the Palestinian death toll in the enclave, already over 23,700, is on the rise, according to figures released by the Gaza-based Health Ministry.
Under U.S. pressure, the Israeli army is seeking to gradually reduce the intensity of military operations in the Gaza Strip in 2024, but the duration of the conflict may be lengthened, said Jerusalem-based Palestinian political analyst Firas Yaghi.
During a visit to the West Bank on Jan. 7, Herzi Halevi, chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said the conflict in Gaza would likely last throughout 2024. He also warned of a possible flare-up in violence “on other fronts, especially the West Bank,” and said the IDF would increase “the pressure it exerts” on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where it has traded fire with Hezbollah, a Shiite military group, in recent months.
Children are seen in front of a damaged building in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, on Jan. 9, 2024. (Photo by Mohammed Ali/Xinhua) As the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip worsens, Israel is coming under increasing pressure both internationally and domestically.
As entire neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip have been leveled by the Israeli bombardments, about 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are displaced, according to statistics released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.—Xinhua
