Israeli attacks in central Gaza killed at least 35 people on Sunday, hospital officials said, as fighting devastated the tiny enclave, a day after Israel’s prime minister said the war would continue for “many more months”, resisting international calls for a ceasefire. AP reports, taken from news.ro.

The army said Israeli forces were operating in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and residents reported strikes in the central region, the latest flare-up in a nearly three-month air and ground war that has raised fears of a regional conflagration.

The US military said its forces shot dead several Iranian-backed Houthi rebels as they tried to attack a cargo ship in the Red Sea, escalating a maritime conflict linked to the war. And an Israeli cabinet minister has suggested encouraging Gazans to emigrate, remarks that could exacerbate tensions with Egypt and other friendly Arab states.

Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas’ government and military capabilities in Gaza, from where the October 7 attack on southern Israel was launched. The militants killed around 1,200 people after breaching Israel’s heavy border defenses, undermining the country’s sense of security. They also took about 240 hostages, nearly half of whom were released during a temporary ceasefire agreement in November.

Just after midnight on New Year’s Day, Hamas militants launched a barrage of rockets, setting off air raid sirens in southern and central Israel. No casualties have been reported.

Displaced Palestinians found little reason to celebrate on New Year’s Eve in Muwas, a makeshift camp in a largely undeveloped area of ​​the southern Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip designated by Israel as a safe zone.

“Because of the intensity of the pain we’re feeling, we don’t feel like it’s a new year,” Kamal al-Zeinati said as he huddled with his family around a campfire in a tent. “All days are the same.”

Another relative, Zeyad al-Zeinati, who fled with his family from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, said his wife, brother and grandchildren were among the many relatives he lost during the war.

Israel’s unprecedented air and ground offensive has killed more than 21,800 Palestinians and wounded more than 56,000 others, according to the Health Ministry of Hamas-controlled Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilian and militant deaths.

The war has provoked a humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, a quarter of the residents of Gaza will die of starvation. Israel’s bombardment has destroyed vast areas, displacing about 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

THE ATTACK CONTINUES

Israel this week expanded its offensive into the central Gaza Strip, targeting a belt of densely built-up communities home to refugees from the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation and their descendants.

According to eyewitnesses, Israeli aircraft killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens of people in Zweid. The bodies were wrapped in white plastic and placed in front of the hospital, where prayers were held before the burial.

“They were innocent people,” said Hussein Siam, whose relatives were among the dead. “Israeli warplanes bombed the whole family.”

Officials at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah said 13 people were among the 35 bodies received on Sunday.

The Israeli army said it was fighting militants in Khan Younis, where Israel believes Hamas leaders are hiding. He also said that his forces operating in the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza found a bomb in a kindergarten and defused it. Hamas continues to fire rockets at southern Israel.

Israel has faced stiff resistance from Hamas since the ground offensive began in late October, and the military says 172 soldiers have been killed during that period.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an army spokesman, said Israel was withdrawing some troops from Gaza as part of the “smart management” of the war. He didn’t say how many, and hinted that they might come back later in the war.

Israeli media reported that up to five brigades of 1,000 soldiers would be withdrawn, but it was not yet clear whether this was a normal troop rotation or a new phase of fighting. Hagari also said some reservists would return to civilian life to support Israel’s economy during the war.

ISRAELI MINISTER CALLS FOR MASS MIGRATION FROM GAZA

The scale of the destruction and the flight south has raised fears among Palestinians and Arab countries that Israel intends to expel the population from Gaza and prevent them from returning.

Israel’s far-right finance minister said on Sunday that Israel should “encourage migration” from Gaza and rebuild Jewish settlements in the territory, from which it withdrew settlers and soldiers in 2005.

“If there were only 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza, instead of 2 million, the whole discussion about ‘the next day’ would be very different,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told Radio Armata.

Smotrych was largely sidelined by the military cabinet, to which he is not a member. But his comments risk increasing tensions with neighboring Egypt, which is deeply concerned about a possible mass influx of Palestinian refugees along with other friendly Arab countries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel must maintain indefinite security control over the Gaza Strip. At a news conference on Saturday, he said the war would continue for “many months” and that Israel would take control of the Gaza Strip on the border with Egypt.

Israel claims that Hamas has been smuggling weapons from Egypt, but Egypt is likely to oppose any Israeli military presence in the area.

Netanyahu also said he would not allow the Palestinian Authority, which is backed by the international administration that governs parts of the occupied West Bank, to expand its limited rule in Gaza, where Hamas ousted its forces in 2007.