Israel and Hamas claim victory in ongoing heavy fighting in northern Gaza

After nearly three months of intense Israeli military action in northern Gaza to suppress what Israel said was a resurgence of Hamas fighters, fighting raged unabated on Monday, with both sides claiming successes against the other's fighters, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The Israeli military issued a statement saying that a soldier was killed in a fierce battle in the northern Gaza Strip and that three members of the same brigade were seriously wounded in the same clash. The statement did not provide any further details.

Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said it destroyed an Israeli vehicle in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing and wounding an unspecified number of IDF soldiers. Hamas also said it targeted Israeli soldiers in Jabalia, killing five Israelis.

The Israeli military declined to comment, saying it does not respond to announcements by “terrorist organizations,” according to the newspaper. For its part, the Israeli military said it killed and captured “several” militants in a nighttime operation near Jabaliya as they attempted to “escape, deploy deception tactics and carry out ambushes.” It said the action came after a “targeted operation” against a Hamas command center “inside Kamal Adwan Hospital” in the same area over the weekend that led to the arrest of more than 240 militants, most of them civilian medical personnel and some patients, and claimed that its forces “continue to operate” in the area.

The occupation army did not provide any evidence of the presence of Hamas fighters in the hospital.

The Israeli military on Monday released footage it said it had found in Gaza that it claimed showed Hamas militants planting explosives near the Indonesian Hospital, located in the northern part of the enclave. The military said its forces had been operating nearby last week to “eliminate” militants “who tried to escape from the hospital,” and that it had arrested “dozens” of additional fighters and “neutralized” areas filled with explosives.

The occupation army claimed: "This is another example of the cynical use of the Hamas terrorist organization of the civilian population and institutions in the Gaza Strip."

The New York Times says it has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the footage.

Although the continuous bombing and brutal attacks by the Israeli occupation army have raised concerns in the international community and among humanitarian organizations, these organizations have not been able to exert sufficient pressure on the Israeli occupation army to force it to stop its massacres against hospitals.

The death toll in Gaza since the war began has exceeded 45,540 people, most of them women and children, the health authorities in Gaza said in a statement on Monday. More than 20 people were killed on Monday, it said.

Israel claims that with the killing of the Israeli soldier in northern Gaza on Monday, the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in combat with Palestinian resistance fighters since Israel launched its war on the besieged Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, has reached 825.

In a related matter, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday: “France condemns the Israeli military operations targeting several hospitals in Gaza, in particular Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is now out of service.” The ministry expressed particular concern about the fate of the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyeh, who was among 240 people the Israeli military said it arrested in what it called a “targeted operation” at the facility on Friday.

Dr. Abu Safia was outspoken in his condemnation of Israeli military actions in and around the hospital and in Gaza more broadly, documenting the death and destruction he witnessed.

“Since the beginning of the war on the Gaza Strip, our father has made tremendous efforts to support the collapsed health system,” his family said in a statement on Monday.

The statement said that Dr. Abu Safiya lost a son and was injured in the war but continued to work as a “pillar of support” for civilians in northern Gaza since the start of the Israeli war (on October 7, 2023) and renewed there last October. The family called on the international community to take “urgent and immediate action” to secure the doctor’s release. Agnes Callamard, the head of Amnesty International, called in a statement on Monday for Dr. Abu Safiya’s release, saying the organization was “deeply concerned” about his fate in detention.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also called for the release of the hospital director and demanded an end to fighting in and around medical facilities.

“Hospitals in #Gaza have once again become battlefields and the health system is under severe threat,” he said on social media. Dr. Abu Safia had denounced the dire situation at the hospital in a video posted on social media on December 24, with explosions heard in the background.

"All night long we are being bombed like this, and we are being killed and slaughtered every day," he said.