Nearly 19,000 killed in Gaza as fighting enters another bloody weekend

Gaza health authorities say close to 19,000 people have been confirmed killed, with thousands more feared buried under rubble as the war in Gaza progresses into another weekend of horror.

Reuters reported that Gaza residents said the enclave is slipping into another night of intense fighting and bombardment the length of the war-torn territory on Friday, including in Sheijaia, Sheikh Radwan, Zeitoun, Tuffah, and Beit Hanoun in the north, and the centre and northern fringes of the main southern city Khan Younis.

Hospitals in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah reported a new influx of dead and wounded early on Friday.

Earlier, the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who visited Israel on Thursday and Friday, told journalists that he was carrying a message to Israel to scale down the broad military campaign and transition to more narrowly targeted operations against Hamas leaders.

“There will be a transition to another phase of this war, one that is focused in more precise ways on targeting the leadership and on intelligence-driven operations,” he said.

“When exactly that happens and under exactly what conditions will be a continuing intensive discussion between the United States and Israel,” he said.

“The conditions and the timing for that was obviously a subject of conversation I had with” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, other Israeli government leaders and military commanders, added Sullivan.

The United States has protected Israel, its long-term ally diplomatically so far, including vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution a week ago. Still, Biden’s strong remarks this week were a clear shift in tone.

The three-week timeline to transition to targeted operations, cited by the New York Times, would mean the broad ground war being scaled back in the early days of 2024.

The past two weeks have seen an intensification of combat since a week-long truce collapsed at the start of December, with Israel now extending its ground campaign from the northern half of the enclave into the south.

Although Israel had said its forces had largely achieved their objectives in the north, fighting there has only worsened, while also spreading to the south, where most of the population is now sheltering. The vast majority of Gazans have been driven from their homes over the past two months, many several times.

Reuters