PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Israel’s defense minister warned Thursday the war with Hamas would last “more than several months” as he met a top US official amid a rift between the allies over the timeline and conduct of the campaign.
The war, now in its third month, began after the Palestinian group’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an unrelenting military offensive that has left swathes of Gaza in ruins. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 18,787 people have been killed, mostly women and children.
In Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, smoke rose from a grey landscape of rubble which people combed with shovels and their bare hands after a strike. One man sat on the broken concrete, wiping his eyes.
“Around four people are still stuck under the rubble” after an airplane hit the building “without a warning”, said Hassan Bayyout, 70.
