Officials and lawmakers are marking six months since the militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel, prompting the country to launch months of retaliatory attacks in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commemorated the six-month milestone in a speech to the Cabinet. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to eliminate Hamas since the start of the war and has since drawn criticism from Western countries for Israel’s actions in Gaza, where thousands of civilians have been killed in the war.
“Today we mark six months since the war began. The war’s achievements are significant, having eliminated 19 of Hamas’s 24 battalions, including senior commanders. The center has been wiped out,” Netanyahu said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).
Prime Minister Netanyahu declared war on Hamas on October 7, 2023, after an insurgent attack in southern Israel killed around 1,200 people and took another 240 hostages. Since then, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health has report A total of 33,175 people have died in the region. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Israel’s actions over the past six months in a statement With X.
“Six months on, Israeli military operations have brought relentless death and destruction to Gaza. Lives have been shattered. Children are dying from lack of food and water. This is incomprehensible. “It is completely avoidable. Nothing can justify collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated: in a statement On Saturday, Al Shifa Hospital was left in “ruins” after six months of fighting. The WHO said investigators found most of the buildings were “severely damaged or destroyed” and there were no patients left in the hospital.
“Like much of the north, Al-Shifa Hospital, once Gaza’s largest and most important referral hospital, is now an empty shell due to the siege,” the statement said.
Aid groups and world leaders are calling the war a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as much of the country’s population faces the risk of starvation and more than a million people have already been displaced.
President Biden issued his harshest criticism of the U.S. ally in the wake of an Israeli airstrike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in the Gaza Strip last week. Biden said Israel “is not doing enough to protect aid workers who are trying to get desperately needed aid to civilians.”
Last week, Mr. Biden also called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire agreement to release the remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip. He also suggested that U.S. war policy depends on Israel’s ability to protect civilians and humanitarian workers.
The Associated Press reported that Israel began withdrawing some troops from the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis on Sunday after six months of fighting. But officials say the military is reorganizing its forces to prepare to move into Rafah, a move the Biden administration has warned Israel against.
Some members of Congress continued to voice support for Israel on Sunday, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana).
“Today, more than ever, Washington must come together to support our great ally Israel in its fight for its sovereignty and right to exist. It’s time to start providing our friends with the resources they need to eliminate the threat once and for all,” Prime Minister Johnson said. in a statement.
The Associated Press contributed.
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