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On the 108th day of the Israeli war on Gaza, Khan Yunis witnessed intense bombing by the occupation forces, resulting in dozens of martyrs and wounded. While raids and arrests continued in the West Bank, the Lebanese Hezbollah announced the killing of two of its members.
The cities of Gaza, Jabalia, Al-Maghazi, and Khan Yunis are witnessing fierce clashes between the resistance and the occupation army.
During a meeting of European Union foreign ministers that will study a new peace plan, EU foreign policy official Josep Borrell said that the method Israel is using to destroy Hamas is wrong, while Belgian Foreign Minister Hajjah Habib confirmed that the conflict in Gaza will not be resolved with weapons.
Difficult hours in Gaza
Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, witnessed difficult hours as a result of it being subjected to intense and unprecedented Israeli bombardment, which resulted in more than 160 martyrs and wounded, amid explosions and Israeli attempts to penetrate the western axis of the city, and fierce clashes waged by the resistance, which led to the death of 3 officers.
At a time when the occupation army announced the expansion of its operations in Khan Yunis and spoke of 7 brigades operating underground and above ground, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said that it had committed a new crime against the displaced by bombing 5 shelter centers in the governorate.
This resulted in dozens of martyrs and wounded.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that 66 martyrs and 100 wounded were killed in the continuous Israeli bombing of Khan Yunis since yesterday evening, Sunday.
She pointed out that dozens of martyrs and wounded are still in the sites targeted by the occupation west of the city.
The Al-Qassam Brigades - the military wing of the Hamas movement - announced a number of its operations against the occupation forces and vehicles, the most recent of which was the sniper and direct injury of an Israeli soldier southwest of Gaza City.
On the other hand, the occupation army announced the killing of 3 officers, two of them with the rank of major and the third with the rank of captain, in the battles west of Khan Yunis. It indicated that the dead officers were a deputy battalion commander, a company commander, and a platoon commander in the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroopers Brigade.
The occupation army also announced the transfer of 15 soldiers and officers who sustained various injuries in the battles of Khan Yunis.
The Israeli army had previously announced that 13 soldiers had been wounded in the battles in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.
The Israeli Walla website stated, "Today is the most difficult day of fighting in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war."
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Reports quoted Israel Katz as calling for the creation of an artificial island as an alternative homeland for the Palestinians (French)
A new call for displacement
The Times of Israel newspaper quoted the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as categorically denying Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz’s offer to displace the residents of Gaza to an artificial island, and said that what the minister offered was to build a port for Gaza on an artificial island.
Media reports quoted the Israeli minister during his meeting with his counterparts in the European Union to discuss the next day after the war on Gaza, as saying on Monday, “We presented the idea of an artificial island that would be an alternative homeland for the Palestinians.”
The minister said that the island would be 5 kilometers from the coast of Gaza, and a port and airport could be established on it to be a commercial center similar to Singapore, as he put it.
He added that Israel will control what enters and exits the island and connects it to the mainland via two bridges.
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Prisoners file
Regarding the issue of Israeli prisoners held by the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected any conditions within the proposed prisoner and detainee exchange deal with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) that would lead to Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu said that he categorically rejects the prisoner exchange proposal because it amounts to demanding Israel to surrender, and added that continued military pressure is the only way to recover the Israeli hostages.
Israeli Channel 7 quoted Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as confirming that he would not agree to a deal that included stopping the war on the Gaza Strip.
For his part, Israeli War Council member Gadi Eisenkot said that the fate of the hostages should take priority over the rest of the other war goals, even if that means missing the opportunity to eliminate Hamas leaders. He said that there is a need to reach an agreement soon if Israel wants to release the prisoners alive.
In this context, a group of families of Israeli prisoners detained in the Gaza Strip stormed a meeting of the Finance Committee in the Israeli Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday, demanding that representatives make more efforts to try to release their relatives.
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West Bank
In the developments of the Israeli escalation in the West Bank, a number of Palestinians were injured as the Israeli occupation forces stormed several cities and towns. The expansion of the raids was accompanied by the occupation’s transfer of forces from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank for fear of deteriorating conditions there.
The Palestinian Red Crescent announced that a Palestinian was shot in the foot by occupation forces during clashes that broke out in the village of Iraq Burin, south of the city of Nablus in the West Bank. The occupation army arrested a young man before it withdrew.
Confrontations broke out in the village of Madama, south of the city of Nablus, during which the occupation army fired live bullets, sound bombs and gas bombs at young Palestinians.
In Jenin, in the northern West Bank, two young Palestinians were injured after being severely beaten by Israeli occupation soldiers in the town of Yaabad, southwest of the city.
Foot soldiers from the occupation army also stormed the village of Faqoua, northeast of Jenin.
Israeli occupation forces storm the town of Zawata, west of the city of Nablus in the West Bank #Gaza_War #Video pic.twitter.com/MS40Rs97An
- Al Jazeera Palestine (@AJA_Palestine) January 21, 2024
Confrontations and clashes broke out in the town of Nahalin, west of the city of Bethlehem, where the occupation army fired live bullets and tear gas bombs at Palestinian homes, closed shops and sent military reinforcements to the town after Palestinian youths repelled the intrusion.
Two young men were also injured during the occupation forces’ storming of the villages of Kobar, Kafr Ain, Al-Mazraa Al-Sharqiya, and Silwad, east of Ramallah.
In light of Israeli fears of the situation deteriorating in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli "Wala" website revealed that the occupation army decided to reduce the size of its forces in Gaza and transfer some of them to the West Bank to replace regular army forces there.
In the face of what the occupation forces are doing in the West Bank, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh called for "intensifying international intervention to stop the aggression and killing, and to stop the war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank."
Shtayyeh said that Israel is carrying out a process of "comprehensive destruction" in the West Bank, in parallel with the "genocidal war" it is waging in the Gaza Strip.
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Lebanese Front
On the Lebanese front, Hezbollah announced the killing of two of its members, bringing the number of party members killed since last October 8 to 146.
The party also announced the bombing of several Israeli military sites, stressing that its members targeted an Israeli army force in the Israeli Abu Dajj Heights with appropriate weapons.
On the other hand, the Israeli army targeted residential buildings in several towns and villages in southern Lebanon with air strikes and artillery shelling using phosphorus shells.
The official Lebanese news agency reported that Israeli artillery targeted the town of Kafr Kila with phosphorus shells, amid a sweeping operation with machine guns from Metulla towards the town.
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Fear in the north
In a related context, an Israeli academic study showed that about 60% of the settlers who were evacuated from the northern regions feared returning to their homes.
While about 40% of those who remained in their homes confirmed that they experienced “post-traumatic stress” symptoms without receiving organized psychological support from the state, according to what was reported by Israeli Channel 13.
The study also showed that post-traumatic feelings increased three times among the residents of the Eastern Galilee, compared to the period before the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle.
The publication of the study coincided with the announcement that the Israeli army was preparing a plan for the possible shelter of about 100,000 people on the northern border.
The Israeli Walla website reported that the aforementioned shelter plan comes in preparation for their evacuation in light of the possible escalation.
In turn, the mayor of Haifa said that the city's residents should stock up on food in the event of a war with Lebanon.
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Only 18 representatives agreed to the motion of no confidence in the Netanyahu government (Reuters)
Netanyahu survives vote of no confidence
The Israeli Knesset (Parliament) failed to hold a session of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called for by Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli.
The failure of the session came after it was boycotted by members of the ruling coalition in Israel, as only 18 members approved the no-confidence proposal, and it required the approval of 61 (out of 120) in order for the proposal to be passed.
The Labor Party leader had submitted a motion of no confidence after Netanyahu refused to reach an agreement to release Israeli detainees in Gaza.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid also announced his rejection of the Labor Party leader's call for a vote of no confidence, and stressed that the security conditions "do not allow for discussing political issues," as he put it.
Lapid called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dialogue in order to set a date for the elections, instead of what he described as political wrangling during the war.
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The Iranian Alborz combat destroyer recently crossed the Bab al-Mandeb Strait after tensions increased in the Red Sea recently (Iranian press)
Conflict regarding targeting a ship
In terms of tension in the Red Sea, the US Fifth Fleet announced that the Houthis’ report of a successful attack on a US military cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden with naval missiles was “false.”
The Fifth Fleet confirmed, “We maintained continuous communications with the ship “Ocean Gas” throughout its safe transit.
The Ansar Allah Houthi group announced - earlier today, Monday - the targeting of an American military cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden with naval missiles, at a time when a senior military official accused Iran of being directly involved in the Houthi attacks on the ships.
A televised statement by the Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said: “In victory for the oppression of the Palestinian people, and as part of the response to the American-British aggression against our country, the (group’s) naval forces carried out a military operation targeting an American cargo ship of the Ocean Gas type in the Gulf of Aden, with appropriate naval missiles.” .
He added that the response to the American and British attacks (on Yemen) is inevitably coming, and any new attack will not remain without response and punishment.
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Source: Al Jazeera + agencies