Fighting rages in northern Gaza; Biden speaks with Netanyahu

CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israel battled Hamas on Saturday in pursuit of its elusive goal of full control of northern Gaza after the UN Security Council appealed for more aid for the Palestinian enclave but stopped short of demanding a ceasefire.

Thick smoke hung over the northern town of Jabalia and residents reported persistent aerial bombardment and shelling from Israeli tanks, which they said had moved further into the town.

Hamas said it had destroyed five Israeli tanks in the area, killing and injuring their crews, after reusing two undetonated missiles launched earlier by Israel. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Israel’s chief military spokesperson said that its forces had achieved almost complete operational control of northern Gaza and were preparing to expand the ground offensive to other areas in the Strip, with a focus on the south.

US President Joe Biden discussed the situation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, the White House said. Israel’s main ally has kept up its support while expressing concern over the growing casualty toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Biden declined to detail his conversation with Netanyahu, telling reporters it was a “private conversation.”

But, he added: “I did not ask for a ceasefire.”

Biden and Netanyahu talked in detail about Israeli’s military operations in Gaza including “its objectives and phasing,” the need to protect civilian lives and securing the release of hostages being held captive, the White House said.

US officials have said they want and expect Israel soon to shift its military operations in Gaza to a lower-intensity phase during which there will be more targeted operations focused on the Hamas leadership and its infrastructure.

After days of wrangling to avert a threatened US veto, the UN Security Council on Friday passed a resolution urging steps to allow “safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access” to Gaza and “conditions for a sustainable cessation” of fighting.

The resolution was toned down from earlier drafts that called for an immediate end to 11 weeks of war and diluting Israeli control over aid deliveries, clearing the way for the vote in which the United States abstained.

The United States and Israel oppose a ceasefire, contending it would allow the Islamist militant group to regroup and rearm.

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The army also released a video it said showed Hamas tunnels in the Issa area. Reuters could not independently verify the location or the date. Israel accuses the militant group of placing tunnels and other military infrastructure among civilians to use them as human shields, something Hamas denies.

At least 201 Palestinians have been killed over the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 20,258 during the 11-week conflict, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday, with thousands more bodies believed trapped under rubble. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.

Israel said on Saturday that 146 of its soldiers have been killed since it launched its ground incursion on Oct. 20 in response to an Oct. 7 rampage into Israel by Gaza’s ruling Hamas, who killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages back into the enclave.

‘THEY BOMB DAY AND NIGHT’

Israel has long urged residents to leave northern areas of Gaza but its forces have also been bombarding targets in central and southern parts of the tiny coastal enclave.

“They ask people to head to (the central Gaza city of) Deir al-Balah, where they bomb day and night,” Ziad, a medic and father of six, told Reuters by phone.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on X it had evacuated several dead and wounded on Saturday after a house was shelled in Deir al-Balah.

In southern Gaza, Palestinian mourners attended the burial of a family of four killed in an Israeli airstrike on Khan Younis.

“International law has collapsed… If Israel were in the Palestinians’ position, the world would not stand still and would act,” said Ramzy Aidy, a Gaza resident with a doctorate in law.

Hamas and its allies have fired rockets into Israel throughout the war, with most shot down. On Saturday, sirens sounded to the north and east of Gaza after two days of quiet.