Gazans ‘exhausted’ as Israel-Hamas war rages on

Fighting raged Saturday across Gaza, where displaced Palestinians said they were “exhausted” with no end in sight to the war between the besieged territory’s Hamas rulers and Israel, now in its 13th week.

Smoke billowed over the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Khan Yunis, the focus of recent fighting in the grinding war, which was triggered by Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.

Further south, the border city of Rafah near Egypt was teeming with Gazans seeking safety from Israel’s relentless bombardment in its fight against Palestinian militants.

“Enough with this war! We are totally exhausted,” said Umm Louay Abu Khater, a 49-year-old woman who had fled her home in Khan Yunis, taking refuge in Rafah.

“We are constantly displaced from one place to another in cold weather,” she said. “The bombs keep falling on us day and night.”

The Israeli army kept up its campaign in the face of mounting international pushback, reporting “fierce battles” and air strikes across the Palestinian territory.

The fighting began with Hamas’s bloody October 7 attacks, which left about 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took about 250 people hostage, and Israel says 129 of them remain in captivity.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the Israeli military campaign has killed at least 21,672 people, mostly women and children.

A ministry statement on Saturday said 165 Gazans were killed over the previous 24 hours.

The Israeli army says 170 soldiers have been killed in combat inside the territory.

An AFP correspondent reported continuous shelling of Rafah and Khan Yunis overnight, and the health ministry said “multiple” people had died in a strike on a house in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza.

‘Year of destruction’
Medics in Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis said they were facing severe shortages.

“The hospital is receiving a lot more (patients) than its capacity, in fact we are functioning at 300 percent of our… capacity,” doctor Ahmad Abu Mustafa said in footage shared by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The beds are full… and we are basically short on all sorts of medicine supplies.”

The health ministry appealed to the international community for increased support, including assistance in evacuating patients.

The fighting has put 23 hospitals and 53 health centres out of service, while 104 ambulances have been destroyed, the ministry said.

In central Gaza’s Zawayda, Palestinians pulled the body of a child from under the rubble after an Israeli strike.

“We pulled (out) nine martyrs, who were members of a very peaceful family. Two adjacent houses were targeted,” said the area’s civil defence director, Rami al-Aidi.

In Deir al-Balah, farther south, slain reporter Jabr Abu Hadrous was laid to rest.

“Palestinian journalists are killed, arrested and prosecuted,” said fellow journalist Basel Khalaf, calling on the international community to “stand by Palestinian journalists, not only in words but also in actions”.

In north Gaza, the Israeli army said it had killed dozens of “terrorists” in Gaza City and dismantled two Hamas “military compounds” in Beit Lahia.

The army released footage of what it said was the demolition of a complex of tunnels in north Gaza that had been used by Hamas as a hideout.

Ahmed al-Baz, a 33-year-old Palestinian displaced from Gaza City, said this year had been “the worst in my life”.

“It was a year of destruction and devastation,” he said in Rafah, surrounded by tents in a makeshift camp.

“We just want the war to end, and start the new year at home, with a ceasefire declared.”