He Israeli Army He said on Thursday that since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Stripmore than ten months ago, has killed some 17,000 fighters of the Palestinian militias led by Hamaswhen the number of deaths in the enclave exceeded the threshold of 40,000.
Army spokesman, Daniel Hagarisaid that the “significant fighting” taking place throughout the Strip and the “military achievements” have significantly harmed Hamas’s ability to regroup, although in recent years Israeli forces have had to return on several occasions to areas they already considered controlled in the face of the return of the Islamists.
Israel released this figure on the same day that the Hamas-controlled Gaza government announced that the number of deaths in the Strip since October 7 number of missing persons totalling 40,005 – more than 16,000 children – in addition to 10,000 under the rubble and more than 92,000 injured.
“The genocidal war and this holocaust undertaken by the occupation, supported by the US administration against our Palestinian people must cease; The policies of hunger, thirst, denial of food and aid to more than 2.4 million people must cease“The burning of neighborhoods, the demolition of buildings, hospitals, mosques and schools must stop,” the Hamas government said.
He also called on the international community to exercise “real and effective pressure” on Israel to end the war.
“We are determined to continue,” the spokesman said at a press conference, while an Israeli delegation, led by the head of the Mossad, David Barneais in Doha to resume with the mediators -Egypt, Qatar and the United States- negotiations for a ceasefire in the enclave, which would also avoid a regional escalation.
Israel has been in a state of crisis for two weeks “high alert” Following the threat of Iran to attack Israel in retaliation for the assassination of the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group, Ismail Haniyehtwo weeks ago in Tehran; as well as the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollahafter Israel killed its military chief Fuad Shukr, a few hours before.
“In the last week we have improved and increased our offensive and defensive preparation“We continue to gather information, carry out attack efforts on Lebanon, and we are vigilant on all fronts, all the time,” Hagari explained about this new peak of tension.
The Army, which maintains its ground offensive in Rafah and Khan Yunisin the south, as well as in Gaza City and the centre of the enclave, reported in the morning that in the last day it had killed some “20 terrorists” in the Rafah area, at the southern end of the Strip bordering Egypt.
There he also reported that in the last week he had dismantled about 50 underground tunnels Hamas bases located in the Philadelphia corridor – the border between Gaza and Egypt – which Israel has controlled since early June and which was widely used for arms smuggling.
On Thursday’s confirmation by Hamas that one of its militants killed a hostage it was guarding “in revenge” after learning that its children had died in an Israeli bombing, Hagari said that the group “spreads manipulative messages “on hostages, as a strategy of psychological terror, with the aim of sowing fear among the public.”
