Rockets still likely after 'dismantling' Hamas as refugee camps "full of terrorists": IDF

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a press conference on Saturday (6 January) that despite Israeli troops having "dismantled" the military framework of Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, there is still likely to be sporadic rocket fire on Israel from those areas.

He also said that the refugee camps in central Gaza are full of terrorists while the Khan Younis area is full of underground tunnel networks of Hamas, so IDF will focus now on dismantling Hamas in central and southern Gaza.

It would appear then, that even with Hamas 'dismantled', attacks on Gaza are not to cease since it continues to present a threat to Israel.

It is worth mentioning that Israel now faces a genocide charge in the International Court of Justice, levelled by South Africa.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths also noted recently that Gaza has become "uninhabitable" already and that the 22,000-plus people killed in Gaza are "mostly women and children".

However, the IDF spokesman said that the fighting will continue throughout 2024 and the military is working on a properly laid-out plan to achieve the goals of the war: to dismantle Hamas and get all hostages released.

Meanwhile, the IDF and Shin Bet said that the commander of Hamas' Nuseirat battalion in central Gaza, Ismail Siraj, and his deputy Ahmed Wahaba were killed in an airstrike.

The Nusierat Battalion was reportedly responsible for the attacks on Kibbutz Be'eri on 7 October.

Gaza report 122 dead, 256 injured in one day

On Saturday, 6 January, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said that 122 people had been killed in the last 24 hours, while another 256 people were injured since Friday, 5 January.

The latest deaths bring the toll since the fighting started to 22,722 killed and 58,166 injured, the ministry said in its daily updates on casualties.

Israel has questioned the accuracy of the numbers in the past, given Hamas' control of authorities in Gaza, but the UN and other observers say they are broadly reliable.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Friday that "three months since the horrific 7 October attacks, Gaza has become a place of death and despair."

Griffiths decried the deaths of "tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children" and said "medical facilities are under relentless attack".

He said a "public health disaster is unfolding," and warned that "famine is around the corner."

"We continue to demand an immediate end to the war," Griffiths said, adding that "it is time for the parties to meet all their obligations under international law, including to protect civilians and meet their essential needs, and to release all hostages immediately."

With IANS and DW inputs