Bloody Christmas in Gaza, where an Israeli raid on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp caused at least 70 deaths, of which a dozen were children .
An attack that prepared the field for the army's ground units, which this morning at dawn "entered the refugee camps in the central sector of the Strip" , as a member of the war cabinet, the party leader, explained to the Knesset Orthodox “Shas” Arie Deri.
«In the north of the Strip we have more or less achieved a military affirmation. Many army forces are located in the south. Now we can therefore say that Zahal (acronym for the armed forces, ed.) is found throughout the Strip."
The war, Benjamin Netanyahu said today during the Likud Knesset session, "will be long and is not yet over" . The prime minister, returning from a meeting with the soldiers engaged in Gaza, said he had heard from them a "clear desire to get to the bottom of it". «Even if doubts emerge in the press and on local TV, we will not stop fighting. And we will deepen the fighting in the coming days too. We must have patience, remain united and persevere in carrying out our mission."
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have meanwhile rejected the Egyptian proposal to replace their government in Gaza in exchange for a permanent ceasefire . The Egyptian plan, supported by Qatar, provides for a new exchange of prisoners, followed by a permanent ceasefire and the future establishment of a government of technocrats in Gaza.
(Unioneonline/L)
