Israel pounds Gaza as Hamas vows to keep up fight

Gaza Strip: Gaza medics and rescuers on Monday said Israeli strikes on several homes killed at least 18 people, as Hamas claimed it had ample resources to sustain its fight nearly a year into the war.

The latest strikes came as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that prospects for a halt in fighting with Hezbollah militants along the Lebanon border were dimming, yet again raising fears of a wider regional conflagration.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP during an interview in Istanbul on Sunday: “The resistance has a high ability to continue.”

“There were martyrs and there were sacrifices... but in return there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.”

His comments came less than a week after Gallant told journalists that Hamas, whose October 7 attack triggered the war, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza.

Deadly fighting raged on in the Gaza Strip on Monday, with survivors seen searching through the debris of crushed buildings following a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Ten people were killed and 15 others were wounded when an air strike hit the home of the Al Qassas family in Nuseirat on Monday morning, a medic at Al Awda hospital, where the bodies were brought, told AFP.

“My house was hit while we were sleeping without any prior warning. There are many martyrs, among them the sons of my family and my little grandsons,” said Rashed Al Qassas, a surviving family member.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said six Palestinians were killed in a similar air strike during the night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood, a regular target of Israeli military raids since the war began.

Two people were killed in another overnight air strike in Rafah that targeted a house belonging to the Abu Shaar family, the agency said.

Israel-Hezbollah tensions surge

The October 7 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.

The war has also drawn in Iran-backed fighters from across the region, including in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

Tensions have surged along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, amid fears the violence could explode into an all-our war.

“The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas,” Gallant told US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin in a phone call.

Gallant “reiterated Israel’s commitment to the removal of Hezbollah presence in southern Lebanon, and to enabling the safe return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes”.

Israeli media outlets said Amos Hochstein, the special envoy of US President Joe Biden, arrived in Israel on Monday to help defuse tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since October 7.

Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem said Saturday his group has “no intention of going to war”, but if Israel does “unleash” one “there will be large losses on both sides”.

The cross-border violence since early October has killed 623 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 141 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.

Houthi strike

Gallant’s warning also comes after Yemen’s Houthi militants claimed a rare missile attack on central Israel on Sunday - an attack that caused no casualties but sparked vows of retaliation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“They should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” the Israeli premier said.

The Houthis said they had “penetrated” Israel’s air defences, while Israel said the missile likely fragmented mid-air but was not destroyed.

In July, a Houthi drone strike killed a civilian in Tel Aviv, at least 1,800 kilometres from Yemen.

It prompted retaliatory strikes that caused significant damage and deaths at Yemen’s rebel-controlled Hodeida port.

Since November the Houthis have targeted Israel and its perceived interests in stated solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, launching dozens of missile and drone strikes that have disrupted global shipping through vital waterways off Yemen.

In a televised speech, the Houthis’ leader said the rebels and their regional allies were “preparing to do even more”.

“Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege on Gaza continue,” Abdul Malik Al Houthi said.