GAZA STRIP: Israeli tanks and aircraft hit areas in central and southern Gaza on Sunday, the 100th day of the ongoing aggression that has claimed a surging civilian death toll and ravaged the besieged Palestinian territory.

The conflict has created a dire humanitarian crisis for the 2.4 million people in Hamas-ruled Gaza, the United Nations and aid groups warn, and reduced much of the coastal strip to rubble. According to the health ministry in Gaza, at least 23,968 people have been killed, the majority of them women and children.

On the other hand, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the restoration of Palestinian statehood.

“It is necessary to insist on the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign state of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital.”

China, Egypt issue joint statement demanding truce, restoration of Palestinian statehood

A joint statement from the two ministers urged an immediate end “to all acts of violence, killing and targeting of civilians and civilian establishments”.

Wang called for “an international summit for peace to find a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause by ending the (Israeli) occupation and establishing an independent, contiguous Palestinian state.”

‘No one will stop us’

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has faced growing international pressure over civilian casualties in Gaza, vowed that “no one will stop us”.

After the International Court of Justice in The Hague heard arguments that accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, Netanyahu insisted that Israel will “continue until victory”.

“No one will stop us — not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil and no one else,” he said at a televised news conference on Saturday.

‘Freedom seekers, not war seekers’

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, addressing a conference in Istanbul through a video link, said: “We are not seekers of wars. We are seekers of freedom.” He said the attack was, in part, a response to the years-long Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

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On Sunday, Israeli forces also claimed to have struck rocket launching pits in the territory’s north and hit targets across the Gaza Strip including the main southern city Khan Yunis. Also, Hamas military wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades reported “clashes with Zionist (Israeli) forces” in Khan Yunis.

Fighting was concentrated in the southern city of Khan Younis, where Hamas said its fighters hit an Israeli tank, as well as in Al-Bureij and Al Maghazi in central Gaza, where the Israeli military claimed to have killed several Palestinians.

84,000 casualties in 100 days

Over the past 24 hours, the Gaza health ministry said 125 people had been killed and 265 wounded, bringing the total number confirmed to have been killed since the start of the war to almost 24,000, with more than 60,000 wounded.

Communications and internet services were down, complicating the work of emergency and ambulance crews trying to help people in areas hit by fighting.

The Gaza Strip’s people suffer acute shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel, and the health system is collapsing.

“The massive death, destruction, displacement, hunger, loss and grief of the last 100 days are staining our shared humanity,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, during a visit to Gaza.

He warned an entire generation of children in Gaza were being “traumatised”, diseases were spreading and the clock was “ticking fast towards famine”.

Winter rains have exacerbated the dire conditions for millions of Palestinians displaced by the violence, according to UN estimates.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2024