Israel pushes for control in northern Gaza

Israel is fighting to wrest full control of northern Gaza from Hamas fighters as the U.S. and Israeli leaders discuss the outlook for the 11-week-old war.

This follows the U.N. Security Council’s appeal for more aid for the Palestinian enclave.

According to Reuters, thick smoke hung over the northern town of Jabalia on Saturday and residents reported persistent aerial bombardment and shelling from Israeli tanks, which they said had moved further into the town.

It quotes the White House as informing that U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the “objectives and phasing” of Israel’s military operations, the need to protect civilian lives and secure the release of hostages from Hamas.

Netanyahu “made clear that Israel will pursue the war until all of its objectives are fully met”, his office said.

Israel’s main ally has maintained its support while expressing concern over the growing casualty toll and humanitarian crisis in densely populated Gaza.

U.S. officials have said they expect Israel to shift soon to a lower-intensity phase, with operations targeting the Hamas leadership and its infrastructure.

Biden told reporters he “did not ask for a ceasefire”, while Netanyahu’s office said he thanked Biden for the U.S. stand at the U.N. Security Council.

The council averted a threatened U.S. veto on Friday after days of wrangling by removing from a draft resolution a call for an immediate end to the war and diluting Israeli control over aid deliveries. The U.S. and Israel oppose a ceasefire, contending it would let Iran-backed Hamas regroup and rearm.

Washington abstained from the final statement, which urges steps to allow “safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access” to Gaza and “conditions for a sustainable cessation” of fighting.

The Palestinian death toll reached 20,258, the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday, with thousands more bodies believed trapped under rubble. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.

Israel said on Sunday that 154 of its soldiers have been killed since it launched its ground incursion in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into Israel, in which militants killed 1,200 and took 240 hostages.