Hezbollah warns of regional war if Gaza bombing goes on

The second in command of Hezbollah — the powerful Iranian backed militia in Lebanon — has said Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza risks wider war in the Middle East.

Sheikh Naim Qassem told the BBC that very serious and very dangerous developments could occur in the region, and no-one would be able to stop the repercussions.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader was speaking in an interview in Beirut, as the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said more than 10,000 people had been killed there.

“The danger is real,” he said, “because Israel is increasing its aggression against civilians and killing more women and children. Is it possible for this to continue and increase, without bringing real danger to the region? I think not.”

He insisted any escalation would be linked to Israel’s actions. “Every possibility has a response,” he said. Hezbollah, “the Party of God” has plenty of possibilities.

The Shia group — classed as a terrorist organization by the UK, US and the Arab League — is the largest political and military force in Lebanon.

So far its response to the war in Gaza has involved amplifying its warnings, but carefully calibrating its actions.

When an Israeli strike killed a woman and three children in southern Lebanon on Sunday, Hezbollah used Grad rockets for the first time in the conflict, killing an Israeli civilian.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has threatened that every civilian death in Lebanon will reap another across the border. But notably, he has not threatened Israel with all-out war

While insisting that all options are on the table the militant group has confined itself to cross-border attacks, hitting mainly military targets.

More than 60 of its fighters have been killed, but it has plenty more battle-hardened supporters to replace them. One fighter buried in Beirut this week was the fifth member of his family to die for Hezbollah, going back generations.

Throughout our interview the organization’s deputy leader tried to portray Hezbollah as a defensive organization — though it is committed to Israel’s destruction and sparked a war with Israel in 2006 by abducting two of its soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Sheikh Qassem claimed Israel “initiated the aggression against Gaza in a hideous way”.

When the BBC pointed out that it was Hamas that had attacked Israel on October 07, he defended the attacks as an inevitable response to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

He repeated the claim that Israeli forces, not Hamas, killed many Israeli civilians. But what of the helmet cameras — worn by the Hamas militants themselves — showing them on a killing spree?

He parried the question. “Why don’t we look at what Israel has done inside Gaza,” he said. “They kill civilians and demolish homes.”

He called the Hamas attacks a great result for the Palestinian resistance and denied they had backfired. What about the 10,000 Gazans who have been killed since then? “The massacres committed by Israel are mobilizing the Palestinians more and more to cling to their land,” he replied.

He conceded that Iran supports and finances Hezbollah but claimed it did not give the orders. But experts say it is Tehran that calls the shots and will decide whether or not to engage in all-out war.

And if Israeli forces have to wage war on a second front with Hezbollah, they will be facing an enemy with more arms than most countries. The militant group puts Hamas in the shade, with an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles.

It has up to 60,000 fighters, including special forces, regular fighters, and reserves, according to Nicholas Blanford, a Beirut-based defense and security consultant, who has studied Hezbollah for decades.

Back in 2006 the group fought Israel to a standstill, but Lebanon had a lot more dead. More than 1,000 of its people were killed, most of them civilians, and whole neighborhoods were flattened in Hezbollah strongholds. Israel lost 121 soldiers and 44 civilians.

Lebanon has careened from crisis to crisis since then — with the devastating explosion in Beirut port in 2020, the collapse of the economy, and the disintegration of the political system. Small wonder few here have an appetite for war.

Many worry that Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks could drag this country into a war it cannot afford. Sheikh Qassem is unapologetic. “It’s the right of any Lebanese to be afraid of war,” he said. “That’s normal. Nobody likes war. Tell the Israeli entity to stop the aggression, so the battles do not expand.”

There could be many shades of escalation ahead — short of all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel. But if it comes it will bring devastation all round, says Blanford.

“It’s going to make what’s happening in Gaza look like a walk in the park,” he told the BBC.

“Israel will be in lockdown for the duration of the conflict. Most of its population will have to remain in bomb shelters,” he said.

“There would be no civil aviation or maritime traffic. Hezbollah’s larger guided missiles could hit military targets across the country.”

As for Lebanon, he said Israel would reduce it to “a car park”.

For now, Hezbollah, Israel, and Iran are all holding back, old enemies assessing new realities.

That doesn’t mean all-out war won’t happen — by miscalculation if not by design.

This is a dangerous new chapter in a blood-soaked region. After October 07, the only certainties appear to be more anguish, death, and destruction.

IDF to run security of Gaza, says Benny Gantz

National Unity party leader and Minister without portfolio Benny Gantz on Wednesday said that the government has not decided who will run Gaza after the IDF topples Hamas, but that whoever it is, the IDF will need to maintain an extended security presence.

“Once the Gaza area is safe, and the northern area will be safe, and the Judea & Samaria region will calm down – we will go down and review an alternative mechanism for Gaza. I do not know what it will be. But I do know what cannot be there – An active presence of Hamas with governance and military capabilities," Gantz told a closed press conference.

The war minister stated, "They cannot be here. We can come up with any mechanism we think is appropriate, but Hamas will not be part of it. So in terms of future strategy – in the Southern Area, we need to replace the Hamas regime and ensure security superiority for us.”

Next, he said, "On the question of the operation's length - there are no limitations. One can see it as a whole month that has passed and another can see it as merely a month passing."

"The war here is for our existence and for Zionism, and so I can’t provide an estimate of the length of each stage in the war and the fighting that will ensue after. We can’t retreat from our strategic objective," he explained.

Gantz said, “The State of Israel didn’t just face a cruel brutal attack, but this was an attack on any human value one can think of, an attack on the Zionist and Democratic concepts. Israel cannot accept such an active threat on its borders. The whole idea of people living side by side in the Middle East was jeopardized by Hamas." 

In addition, he stated, "It was an attack on the democratic way of life here – Israel is the only outpost in the Middle East. We believe therefore, that we are struggling and fighting not only to defend ourselves, but also fighting for something bigger than ourselves.”

Moreover, he said, “Hamas started this war, but Israel is going to win it. Have no doubt about it. Yes, it will take some time and there will be casualties. Though we are trying as much as possible to move Gazan people south and people are dying, we are doing what we can, and we will win this war.”

Next, the National Unity party leader said, "I have always said you can conduct special operations if there’s an opportunity, but you must go to war only when necessary. This time it’s a national necessity. This is why I joined the emergency government – this is not a political partnership. It’s a partnership in destiny.”

Moving to the conflict with Hezbollah, he said, "Lebanon must bear State responsibility, and we must demand it. I believe this is part of Nasrallah’s considerations as well. Though Hezbollah is an Iranian branch, it’s a Lebanese organization. If he (Nasrallah) decides to protect Gaza at the expense of Beirut – so be it. I highly recommend him to do the right calculus.”

 

 

White House cautions Israel against reoccupying Gaza

The White House maintained Tuesday that it doesn’t believe Israeli forces should reoccupy Gaza following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comments that the country will have the overall security responsibility in Gaza for an indefinite period after the war ends.

“The president still believes that a reoccupation of Gaza by Israeli forces is not good. It’s not good for Israel; not good for the Israeli people,” said National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby on “CNN This Morning.”

“One of the conversations that Secretary Antony Blinken has been having in the region is what does post-conflict Gaza look like? What does governance look like in Gaza? Because whatever it is it can’t be what it was on October 06, 2023. It can’t be Hamas,” he added.

The latest warning from the White House comes after Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday that Gaza should be governed by those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas before adding, “I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it.”

It was one of the first hints Netanyahu has given about his vision for a post-war Gaza and suggests a divergent view than that of the US, including President Joe Biden’s own statements about what the future of the strip would look like.

Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Netanyahu, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday that Israel's post-war plan is not an ongoing occupation of Gaza.

"I think you could expect something more fluid, something more flexible where we can move in and move out as need be to deal with the security situation," he said. "We're not talking about any sort of ongoing occupation of the Gaza strip."

Asked about Netanyahu’s comments on ABC News on Monday that Israel will have the overall security responsibility in Gaza for an indefinite period after the war ends, Regev said, "We have to distinguish between a security presence and political control."

"When this is over and we have defeated Hamas, it is crucial that there won’t be a resurgent terrorist element, a resurgent Hamas. There is no point doing this and just going back to square one," Regev told CNN.

"There will have to be an Israeli security presence, but that doesn’t mean Israel is re-occupying Gaza, that doesn’t mean that Israel is there to govern the Gazans," he continued.

"On the contrary, we are interested in establishing new frameworks, where the Gazans can rule themselves, where there can be international support for the reconstruction of Gaza. Hopefully, we can bring in countries – Arab countries as well – for a reconstruction of a demilitarized, post-Hamas Gaza," he said.

Netanyahu on Tuesday said Gaza City is encircled and the Israel Defense Forces are operating in it and advancing the pressure applied on Hamas every hour and every day."

It's unclear based on comments from Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — who said that troops are at the heart of Gaza City — exactly where the IDF is operating inside Gaza.

"So far, we’ve killed thousands of terrorists, from above and under the ground," Netanyahu said in a press conference. "Hamas is finding out that we’re getting to places it didn’t think we’d reach. And the campaign is still underway."

"On the diplomatic front, we’re operating around the clock to allow the IDF the leeway for the remaining military operation," Netanyahu added. "We will not stop until the victory."

Netanyahu also warned Hezbollah against entering the war on Israel's northern front.

"We will not comply with a reality in which Hezbollah or Hamas in Lebanon will hurt our communities and civilians. We’ll continue responding with fierce fire against any attack," Netanyahu said.

"If Hezbollah chooses to enter the war, this will be the biggest mistake in its life."

Netanyahu added that he is in constant touch with US President Joe Biden, saying, "We highly appreciate his support and of the American administration and people." 

Iran and China reach new agreements

Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Ehsan Khandouzi said the 25-year strategic partnership plan between Iran and China has entered a new phase with new agreements being reached between various ministries of the two countries, IRIB reported.

According to Khandouzi, the mentioned agreements have been reached between the two sides during the visit of Iran’s delegation to the 6th China International Import Expo (CIIE).

“Specific projects were defined between the government departments of the respective ministries of Iran and China, and agreements were reached on the details of the implementation of the mentioned projects,” Khandouzi said.

Regarding the private sectors of the two countries, some Iranian companies operating in China and some large Chinese companies operating in Iran faced obstacles, which were discussed and resolved by the relevant authorities, he explained.

“We are going to witness a significant growth in economic cooperation and investment between the two sides with the implementation of these projects,” the minister noted.

Headed by Iran’s First Vice President, Mohammad Mokhber, a senior delegation comprised of Economy Minister Ehsan Khandouzi, Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Abbas Aliabadi, as well as the deputies of various ministries and the economic deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited China last week to attend the 6th CIIE.

Iran and China officially signed the document for 25-year comprehensive cooperation in March 2021.

The document was signed between Iran’s former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Back in December 2022, Iran and China finalized 16 memorandums of understanding (MoU) under the framework of the two countries’ strategic 25-year agreement.

The MoUs were signed in an Iran-China comprehensive cooperation program summit which was held in Tehran on December 13 in the presence of Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber and China’s Vice Premier Hu Chunhua.

The summit was focused on four areas explored by four committees between the two countries with the aim of paving the way for the implementation of the 25-year agreement.

Iran and China also signed 20 memoranda of understanding in the presence of the presidents of the two countries in Beijing in mid-February.

Heading a high-ranking delegation, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi was on a three-day state visit to China starting February 14.

During President Raisi's visit to China, Tehran and Beijing signed a number of bilateral cooperation documents in the fields of agriculture, trade, tourism, environmental protection, health, disaster relief, culture, and sports.

The documents include agreements in the field of transportation and industry worth US$12 billion and US$3.5 billion, respectively; the agreements cover various joint projects like the high-speed rail link between Tehran and Mashhad, and investment in the Imam Khomeini Airport City.

Investment in Iran's southeastern Mokran Coast and the purchase of Iranian oil were also mentioned in the documents.

Raisi's visit served as an example of the high level of mutual trust between China and Iran, as well as a milestone for bilateral ties.

Then in mid-July, the agreements signed between Iran and China during President Raisi’s trip to Beijing in mid-February were turned into specified projects during the two countries’ joint cooperation committee meeting, the Iranian finance and economic affairs minister announced.

Ehsan Khandouzi left Tehran for Beijing on July 12 to attend the Iran-China Joint Cooperation Committee meeting, which was held after four and half years.

“With the constructive atmosphere of the committee, we will soon witness good events in the fields of business and investment”, the official wrote on his Twitter account on July 16.

Khandouzi further announced that Iran and China are going to begin the execution of some joint projects agreed upon in February by the presidents of the two countries, as of the following month.

According to the minister, the necessary follow-ups regarding the mentioned projects have been made over the last five months and the final decisions for the start of their implementations were made during a joint business event on July 13.

“President Raisi had an important trip to Beijing last winter and good agreements were made with the president of China; in this regard, the necessary follow-ups were made by various ministries during the last five months, and on Thursday (July 13) the first joint committee between Iran and China was held after 4.5 years,” Khandouzi said.

“China is Iran's largest trading partner and the most important destination for the export of Iranian goods and an important part of our imports are also from China. Last year, China's share in Iran's (non-oil) trade was 24 percent,” the minister added.

Back in early April, the Chinese ambassador to Tehran said, "This year is a good year for Iran-China relations."

Chang Hua made the remarks in a meeting with the members of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and a number of Iranian traders and businessmen, who conduct trade with China, held at the place of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) in Tehran.

Referring to China's growing economy, the envoy said this year is a good year for Iran-China relations, adding that during the meeting between the leaders of the two countries, important agreements were made, including the implementation of the 25-year cooperation agreement between the two countries, and a number of bilateral cooperation documents were signed in the fields of agriculture, tourism, culture, relief, and rescue, etc.

Majid-Reza Hariri, the head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber, also emphasized the desire of Iran's private sector to develop business relations with China and said there are obstacles in this direction. Among other things, issuing visas for Iranian businessmen, especially for their presence at trade fairs in China, is associated with problems, and facilitating it will definitely help the development of relations between the two sides.

 

 

Deepening relations between Iran and Afghanistan

Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi held talks with Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Acting Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs of the Taliban government on Monday. 

Baradar is leading a high-ranking Taliban delegation that arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Saturday. He also met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Sunday. 

According to Baradar’s office, the two sides discussed political and economic relations, effective coordination between their respective nations, water resource management, transit agreements, and enhancement of Afghanistan’s imports and exports through Iran.

The official and his protégé have traveled to Iran with the aim of meeting and negotiating with Iranian economic officials in order to enhance trade and economic cooperation, develop bilateral relations, and explore more areas of cooperation in transit, transportation, customs, and environment.

The delegation, consisting of 30 Taliban officials, will also travel to other Iranian provinces and are due to be briefed on major economic projects of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This trip is taking place while according to the latest statistics, Iran's share of the Afghan market amounts to 35%. Afghan investors also account for a considerable portion of foreign investments in Iran.

Iran has repeatedly voiced its support for Afghanistan’s security and prosperity. The country currently hosts a population of more than 5 million Afghan refugees and attaches great significance to its ties with Afghanistan. 

Since taking office, President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration has emphasized the necessity of friendly and comprehensive relations with Iran’s neighbors. 

Afghanistan has been ruled by the Taliban since the United States. hastily withdrew its forces from the country in August 2021. It currently grapples with various security and humanitarian challenges, which are thought to be the results of more than two decades of American occupation.

Iran has repeatedly expressed willingness to work closely with the Taliban while calling for an inclusive government in the war-stricken country. 

 

Israel's Final Solution for the Palestinians

Gaza is the start. The West Bank is next.  

I tend to agree with Chris Hedges, he says “When Jewish extremists, fanatic Zionists, religious zealots, ultranationalists and crypto-fascists in the apartheid state of Israel say they want to wipe Gaza off the face of the earth, believe them”.

He covered the birth of Jewish fascism in Israel. He reported on the extremist Meir Kahane, who was barred from running for office and whose Kach Party was outlawed in 1994 and declared a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. He attended political rallies held by Benjamin Netanyahu, who received lavish funding from rightwing Americans, when he ran against Yitzhak Rabin, who was negotiating a peace settlement with the Palestinians. Netanyahu’s supporters chanted “Death to Rabin.” They burned an effigy of Rabin dressed in a Nazi uniform. Netanyahu marched in front of a mock funeral for Rabin. 

Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated on November 04, 1995 by a Jewish fanatic, said Rabin’s widow, Lehea, blamed Netanyahu and his supporters for her husband’s murder.

Netanyahu, who first became prime minister in 1996, has spent his political career nurturing Jewish extremists, including Avigdor Lieberman, Gideon Sa’ar, Naftali Bennett, and Ayelet Shaked. His father, Benzion — who worked as an assistant to the Zionist pioneer Vladimir Jabotinsky, who Benito Mussolini referred to as “a good fascist” — was a leader in the Herut Party that called on the Jewish state to seize all the land of historic Palestine. Many of those who formed the Herut Party carried out terrorist attacks during the 1948 war that established the state of Israel. Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sidney Hook and other Jewish intellectuals, described the Herut Party in a statement published in The New York Times as a “political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to Nazi and Fascist parties.”

There has always been a strain of Jewish fascism within the Zionist project. Now it has taken control of the Israeli state.

“The left is no longer capable of overcoming the toxic ultra-nationalism that has evolved here,” Zeev Sternhell, a Holocaust survivor and Israel’s foremost authority on fascism, warned in 2018, “The kind whose European strain almost wiped out a majority of the Jewish people.” Sternhell added, “[W]e see not just a growing Israeli fascism but racism akin to Nazism in its early stages.” 

The decision to obliterate Gaza has long been the dream of Israel’s crypto-fascists, heirs of Kahane’s movement. These Jewish extremists, who make up the ruling coalition government, are orchestrating the genocide in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians are dying daily. They champion the iconography and language of their homegrown fascism.

Jewish identity and Jewish nationalism are the Zionist versions of blood and soil. Jewish supremacy is sanctified by God, as is the slaughter of the Palestinians, who Netanyahu compared to the Biblical Ammonites, massacred by the Israelites. Enemies — usually Muslims — slated for extinction are subhuman who embody evil. Violence and the threat of violence are the only forms of communication those outside the magical circle of Jewish nationalism understand. Millions of Muslims and Christians, including those with Israeli citizenship, are to be purged. 

A leaked 10-page document from the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence dated October13, 2023 recommends the forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. 

It is a grave mistake not to take the blood curdling calls for the wholesale eradication and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians seriously. This rhetoric is not hyperbolic. It is a literal prescription.

Netanyahu in a tweet, later removed, described the battle with Hamas as a “struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle.” 

These Jewish fanatics have begun their version of the final solution to the Palestinian problem.

They dropped 12,000 tons of explosives on Gaza in the first two weeks of assault to obliterate at least 45 percent of Gaza’s housing units, according to the U.N.’s humanitarian office. They have no intention of being detoured, even by Washington.

“It became evident to US officials that Israeli leaders believed mass civilian casualties were an acceptable price in the military campaign,” The New York Times reported.

“In private conversations with American counterparts, Israeli officials referred to how the United States and other allied powers resorted to devastating bombings in Germany and Japan during World War II — including the dropping of the two atomic warheads in Hiroshima and Nagasaki — to try to defeat those countries,” the paper continued.

The goal is a “pure” Israel, cleansed of Palestinian contaminants. Gaza is to become a wasteland. The Palestinians in Gaza will be killed or forced into refugee camps over the border in Egypt. Messianic redemption will take place once the Palestinians are expelled.

Jewish extremists call for the Al-Aqsa mosque – the third holiest shrine for Muslims, built on the ruins of the Jewish Second Temple, which was destroyed in 70 CE by the Roman army – to be demolished. The mosque is to be replaced by a “Third” Jewish temple, a move that would set the Muslim world alight.

The West Bank, which the zealots call “Judea and Samaria,” will be formally annexed by Israel. Israel, governed by the religious laws imposed by the ultra-orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, will be a Jewish version of Iran.

It is a short step to total Israeli control over Palestinian land. Israel’s illegal Jewish settlements, restricted military zones, closed highways and army compounds have seized over 60% of the West Bank, turning Palestinian towns and villages into ringed ghettos.

There are over 65 laws which discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in the occupied territories. The campaign of indiscriminate killing of Palestinians in the West Bank, many by rogue Jewish militias, along with house and school demolitions and the seizure of remaining Palestinian land will explode.

Over 133 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli army and Jewish settlers since the October 07 incursion by Hamas and thousands of Palestinians have been rounded up by the Israeli military, beaten, humiliated and imprisoned.

Israel, at the same time, is turning on “Jewish traitors” who refuse to embrace the demented vision of the ruling Jewish fascists and who denounce the horrific violence of the state.

The familiar enemies of fascism — journalists, human rights advocates, intellectuals, artists, feminists, liberals, the left, homosexuals and pacifists — are already being targeted. The judiciary, according to plans put forward by Netanyahu, will be neutered. Public debate will wither. Civil society and the rule of law will cease to exist. Those branded as “disloyal” will be deported.

Fascists do not respect the sanctity of life. Human beings, even from their own tribe, are expendable to build their deranged utopia. The zealots in power in Israel could have exchanged the hostages held by Hamas for the thousands of Palestinian hostages held in Israeli prisons, which is why the Israeli hostages were seized. And there is evidence that in the chaotic fighting that took place once Hamas militants entered Israel, the Israeli military decided to target not only Hamas fighters, but the Israeli captives with them. 

“Several new testimonies by Israeli witnesses to the October 07 Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel adds to growing evidence that the Israeli military killed its own citizens as they fought to neutralize Palestinian gunmen,” Max Blumenthal writes in The Grayzone.

Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be’eri, Blumenthal notes, set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. 

Escapa told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that as desperation began to set in, the commanders in the field made difficult decisions – including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.

The newspaper reported that Israeli commanders were compelled to request an aerial strike against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza in order to repulse the terrorists who had seized control. That base housed Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers.

Israel, in 1986, instituted a military policy called the Hannibal Directive, apparently named for the Carthaginian general who poisoned himself rather than be captured by the Romans, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. The directive is designed to prevent Israeli troops from falling into enemy hands through the maximum use of force, even at the cost of killing the captured soldiers and civilians. 

The directive was executed during the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza known as Operation Protective Edge. Hamas fighters on August 01, 2014 captured an Israeli officer, Lt. Hadar Goldin.

In response, Israel dropped more than 2,000 bombs, missiles and shells on the area where he was being held. Goldin was killed along with over 100 Palestinian civilians. The directive was supposedly rescinded in 2016.

 

 

Netanyahu has killed more than ten thousand people in Gaza

Israeli forces pounded northern Gaza with intense airstrikes overnight into Monday night as the Palestinian death toll from a month of fighting exceeded 10,000.

As Israeli troops have pushed into the dense confines of Gaza, an even bloodier phase is expected.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, around 10,022 Palestinians have been martyred so far.

Child casualties crossed 4,000 as Israeli raids expanded, Al Jazeera reported.

The Israeli military said late Sunday that it had cut off northern Gaza from the south, calling it a significant stage in the war. On Monday, it said that aircraft struck 450 targets overnight and ground troops took over a Hamas compound, ABC News reported. 

On Sunday afternoon, an Israeli air strike hit several houses near a school at the Bureji refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 13 people, according to officials at Al-Aqsa Hospital. 

It was the third refugee camp to be hit by Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours. More than 50 Palestinians were killed in attacks on Gaza’s al-Maghazi and Jabalia refugee camps, Al Jazeera said.

Arafat Abu Mashaia, a resident of the al-Maghazi camp, said the Israeli air strike flattened several multi-story homes where people forced out of other parts of Gaza were sheltering.

“It was a true massacre,” he said early on Sunday as he stood on the wreckage of destroyed homes. “All here are peaceful people. I challenge anyone who says there were resistance (fighters) here.”

The camp, a built-up residential area, was located in the evacuation zone.

“These repeated air strikes on refugee camps in central and southern Gaza are the reason why people are not taking the Israeli announcement of guaranteeing safe corridors to travel to the south seriously,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said.

According to the United Nations, 1.5 million people are now internally displaced in Gaza out of a population of 2.3 million.

Food, medicine, fuel, and water are running low, and UN-run schools that have been turned into shelters, are beyond capacity, with many Palestinians sleeping on the streets outside. 

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected the idea of halting the offensive, ignoring appeals and protests across the world.

“There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages; we say this to both our enemies and our friends. We will continue until we beat them,” Netanyahu told air and ground crews at the Ramon Air Force Base in southern Israel on Sunday.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas fighters and assets, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields. Critics say Israel’s strikes are disproportionate, considering the large number of civilians killed.

This is while UN leaders are saying "enough is enough" and demanded a humanitarian ceasefire on Monday nearly a month into the war, as the enclave's health authorities said dozens more people were killed in overnight attacks by Israeli fighter jets and troops, Reuters reported.