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17-12-2023
CAIRO/ GAZA: A US security envoy had talks with Israel about shifting its strategy in Gaza toward surgical operations against Hamas and away from a broad ground campaign, as Palestinians reported heavy attacks along the narrow coastal strip on Friday.
Israeli tanks and planes intensified their bombardment of the northern Gaza, as well as Khan Younis and Rafah in the south of the enclave, residents, authorities and media said.
Four people, including two children, were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike on a house in Khan Younis early on Friday, Palestinian health officials said.
Official Palestinian news agency WAFA said overnight Israeli airstrikes on Khan Younis and Rafah killed or injured tens of people. One of the strikes hit a housing block near the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah, WAFA added.
Live video footage looking into southern Gaza from Israel after dawn on Friday showed thick, black plumes of smoke rising into the air. The cause of the smoke was not immediately known.
Israeli Special Forces said on Friday they had recovered the body of hostage Elia Toledano, 28, who had been held by Hamas since Oct. 7 after being taken from an outdoor music festival. The military said an “identification procedure” had been carried out by medical officials, military rabbis and forensic experts.
Israel has been pounding the 25-mile (40-km) length of Gaza with no sign of a pause in hostilities or a ceasefire that would enable delivery of more desperately needed basic supplies for civilians to survive as their homes have been destroyed.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in retaliation for a rampage by Hamas, the Iran-backed group that rules Gaza, whose fighters killed 1,200 Israelis and seized 240 hostages in a cross-border raid on Oct. 7.
Israeli forces have besieged the coastal strip and laid much of it to waste, with nearly 19,000 people confirmed dead, according to Palestinian health officials, and thousands more feared buried under the rubble.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed moves on Thursday to shift Israel’s attacks on Gaza to lower-intensity operations focused on high-value targets during his visit to Israel, but it would be “irresponsible” to give specific time frames for such a change, a senior administration official told reporters.
“There was a discussion in these meetings and also in our prior meetings, and in calls between the President and the Prime Minister, on kind of a shift in emphasis from high-tempo clearance operations, high intensity clearance operations, which are ongoing now, to ultimately lower-intensity focus on high-value targets, intelligence driven raids, and those sorts of more narrow, surgical military objectives,” said the official, who asked not to be identified. (Int’l News Desk)
