Left: USA National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Right: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
On December 14, 2023, an American envoy discussed with Israeli officials how to protect civilians during the war against Hamas in Gaza, and US President Joe Biden appealed for lives in the Palestinian territory to be saved.
Israel pounded a 25-mile (40km) length of Gaza killing families in their homes and as the more than two-month conflict raged across the entire enclave causing a humanitarian catastrophe with little end in sight. “It will last several more months, but we will win and we will destroy them, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told the White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan’s Interview
Sullivan said in an Israeli TV interview that he spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about when Israel will shift from high-intensity military operations to a more precise phase. He did not provide a specific timeline or elaborate on what such operations would look like although he said, Israel was expected to continue its military campaign for some time.
“The real issue is when does Israel shift from the high-intensity operations that are underway today to a different phase of the conflict, One which is more precise, more targeted, Sullivan said on an Israeli news channel. The occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip need to be connected under a revamped and revitalized Palestinian Authority and Government, Sullivan said.
On December 15, 2023, Sullivan would discuss revamping the Palestinian authority and holding extremist Jewish settlers accountable for the violence against the Palestinians when he visited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, a US official said.
US President Joe Biden asked whether he would want Israel to scale back its assault on the Gaza Strip by the end of the year, said: “I want them to focus on saving civilian lives, but not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful.” Washington has been pushing Israel for weeks to protect more civilians in Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
Hamas Attack on Israel
Israel launched its campaign for retaliation for a rampage by Hamas, an entity that is backed by Iran that rules Gaza and some portions of the West Bank whose fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, seized 240 hostages, and killed 1200 Israelis. Since then, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have besieged the coastal strip and laid much of it to waste with nearly 19,000 people dead, according to Palestinian officials, and thousands buried under the rubble.
Plight of Palestinians
In the Rafah area, jammed with people inside makeshift tents on Gaza’s southern edge people wept alongside a morgue near bodies wrapped in bloodied shrouds. Residents picked forlornly through the rubble of their ancient homes of the Abu Dhbaa and Ashour families where Gaza health authorities said 26 people were killed.
The U.N. Palestinian Refugee Agency said hungry people were stopping trucks and eating food aid immediately. “We meet more and more people who haven’t eaten for one, two, or three days,” its head Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva. People in Gaza described begging for bread paying fifty times more than usual for a single can of beans and some have even slaughtered donkeys to feed a large family.
Israel’s Onslaught
Israel has extended its ground campaign from North to the South this month. In the main city of Khan Younis where advancing Israeli forces reached the centre this week, a whole city block was bombed overnight to dust. Though most of the people fled after Israel’s warnings, neighbours digging with a hand shovel believed four people were inside. One body was recovered.
May God take revenge on them, said Nesmah-al-Byouk returning to the city and ruins of her home she had fled three days ago. “We came and saw everything was destroyed. Where can we go now?
In the north, fighting has escalated even after Israel announced its troops had largely completed their military objectives last month in the Shejaia area and destroyed two tunnel shafts, a rocket-launched pit and weapons storage facility in Khan Younis.
Elsewhere in the north in Jabalia, Gaza’s health ministry said Israeli forces had stormed a hospital, detaining and abusing medical staff and preventing them from treating wounded patients, at least two of whom had died. Israel’s military said fighters had been operating inside the hospital, 70 of whom had surrendered.
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