Dave DeCamp
On Tuesday,
Palestinians in Gaza continued digging bodies out of the rubble of buildings
destroyed by Israel as the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas entered its third
day.
Palestinians
search building rubble in a destroyed neighborhood of Rafah, Gaza, on January
21, 2025, as residents return following a ceasefire deal (Photo by Majdi
Fathi/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect)
Gaza’s Health
Ministry said that hospitals received a total of 72 bodies over the previous
24-hour period, including 68 that were dug out of the rubble and one person who
died of previously sustained injuries.
Al Jazeera
reported that three Palestinians, including a small child, were killed by
Israeli snipers on Monday despite the ceasefire. On Tuesday, the Palestinian
news agency WAFA reported that another Palestinian was killed by Israeli
gunfire near the southern city of Rafah.
The Health
Ministry said that the bodies had brought its death toll since October 7, 2023,
to 47,107 and the number of wounded to 111,147. Gaza’s Civil Defense has
estimated that 10,000 bodies could be under the rubble, and at least 2,840 were
melted, leaving no trace behind.
The Health
Ministry’s death toll is based on bodies that have been brought to hospitals,
meaning the number will continue to rise as more are discovered.
A study recently
published by The Lancet found the Health Ministry’s death toll was a
significant undercount, likely by 41%, and the true number of Palestinians
killed by the Israeli military is likely over 70,000. The estimate only
accounts for people killed by military action, not indirect deaths caused by
the US-backed Israeli siege.
The
Israeli military launched a major offensive in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
on Tuesday focused on the northern city of Jenin, which came just days after
the ceasefire in Gaza took effect.
The
Palestinian Ministry of Health said at least nine Palestinians had been killed
and 40 had been wounded by the Israeli attack on Jenin. Several doctors and
nurses were among the wounded, according to the director of the Jenin
Governmental Hospital.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had “begun an extensive
and significant military operation to defeat terrorism in Jenin – ‘Iron Wall'”
The
Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Israeli warplanes and drones
launched airstrikes on Jenin, and Israeli forces invaded the city with many
armored vehicles. Israeli snipers were also deployed for the assault.
The
Quds Brigade, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), said its
fighters based in Jenin were confronting the invading Israeli forces and fired
“heavy volleys of bullets.” So far, there’s been no word of Israeli casualties.
PIJ
said the purpose of the offensive was for Netanyahu to save his “faltering
government coalition” as he faced resignations for the Gaza ceasefire deal. “We
call on our people throughout the occupied West Bank to confront this criminal
campaign by all means, thwart its goals, and consolidate the enemy’s defeat in
subduing the will of our people in the West Bank and Gaza,” PIJ said.
Israeli
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who threatened his Religious Zionism party
would quit the government if the genocidal war doesn’t resume in Gaza, said the
West Bank offensive was part of a deal he made with Netanyahu. “This is part of
the war goals that were added to the cabinet’s demand for Religious Zionism on
Friday,” he wrote on X.
Smotrich,
a West Bank settler who has long called for the annexation of the territory,
said the operation was launched to protect illegal settlements. “‘Iron Wall’
will be a strong and ongoing campaign against the elements of terrorism and its
perpetrators, to protect the settlement and the settlers, and for the security
of the entire State of Israel, of which the settlement is the security belt,”
he said.
The
Trump administration is expected to be more supportive of the Israeli
government’s plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, which was
demonstrated by President Trump lifting sanctions the Biden administration
placed on violent settlers.
The
offensive in the West Bank could have been part of the deal made between
Netanyahu and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to seal the Gaza
ceasefire deal.
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