Fighting raged across the Gaza Strip on Monday as Israel marked the start of Independence Day in a sombre mood.
Israeli tanks, accompanied by heavy ground and air fire, continued to advance towards the centre of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Israeli forces have been pounding the camp since Saturday, claiming that Hamas fighters have regrouped in the area. Palestinian health officials said they had recovered the bodies of 20 people.
In Rafah, tanks and troops crossed a key highway on the outskirts of the southern city after 360,000 residents fled to escape the fighting, according to United Nations estimates, following orders from the Israeli military. Hamas blamed Israel for shooting upon a UN vehicle in Rafah on Monday, which killed a man and a woman.
Fighting also continued in the Gaza city neighbourhood of Zeitoun.
Since Israeli forces captured the Rafah crossing last week, Egypt has refused to allow humanitarian lorries to use the crossing, prompting Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry to warn that the strip’s health system faces imminent collapse. “A few hours separate us from the collapse of the health system in Gaza as a result of the failure to bring in the fuel necessary to operate electricity generators in hospitals, [and] ambulances and transport employees,” a ministry statement said.
A New York Times report, quoting Israeli and US intelligence officials, said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is believed not to be hiding in Rafah, and most likely never left the tunnel network under Khan Younis, which Israeli troops left in April after months of fierce fighting.
According to the Gaza health ministry, more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7th. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages seized in the surprise Hamas attack that day. It says 132 hostages remain unaccounted for, though it is not known how many are alive.
Some 100 right-wing activists who oppose Israel allowing humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza blocked an aid convoy on the way to the coastal enclave on Monday, emptying the lorries of their contents and damaging nine trucks.
Israel began marking its 76th Independence Day on Monday night, but with no end in sight to the Gaza war and hostages remaining in Hamas captivity, it is the most sombre national day in the country’s history. The main ceremony, broadcast on Monday night, was recorded in advance to prevent the possibility of anti-government protests disrupting a live event.
Prior to Independence Day, protests took place at a number of military cemeteries on Monday as Israel marked Remembrance Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers, including more than 700 members of the security forces who have been killed since the October Hamas attack.
Many bereaved relatives walked out of the main ceremony at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl military cemetery when prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu started his speech.
As defence minister Yoav Gallant began his speech at the military cemetery in Tel Aviv, protesters held up signs reading: “Their blood is on your hands.” This war “will shape our lives for decades to come”, Mr Gallant said, “This is a war that will continue until we return our hostages, and dismantle the rule of Hamas.”
Israel’s top general and the head of the Israel Security Agency Shin Bet, in their speeches, admitted personal responsibility for the events of October 7th.
