Hamas chief says he is ready for a “long war” in Gaza

Sinwar, who replaced assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh last month, wrote in a letter to the group's Yemeni allies: “We have prepared ourselves for a long and grueling struggle.”

Meanwhile, deadly fighting continued in the Gaza Strip. Doctors and rescue workers said at least two dozen people were killed in Israeli attacks on Monday – which the military did not comment on.

The latest attacks came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that prospects of an end to fighting with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon were dwindling, raising renewed fears that a wider regional conflict could emerge.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP at the weekend that despite the losses, the group was “highly capable of continuing the fight” and referred to the “recruitment of new generations” to replace the killed militants.

Gallant said last week that Hamas, whose October 7 attack sparked the war, “no longer exists” as a military formation in the Gaza Strip.

In his letter to the Houthis in Yemen, Sinwar threatened that Iran-allied groups in Gaza, but also elsewhere in the region, including Lebanon and Iraq, would “break Israel's will” after more than 11 months of war.

Independent UN human rights experts warned that Israel was at risk of becoming an international pariah because of its actions in the Gaza Strip and called on Western countries to ensure accountability.

The attack on southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the war left 1,205 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.

The militants also captured 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli military, 33 of them are dead.

At least 41,226 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israel's military retaliation, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area. However, a breakdown of the number of civilian and militant deaths has not been published.

Tensions have increased along Israel's northern border with Lebanon amid fears that violence could escalate into war on both sides of the continent.

“The possibility of a settlement is fading as Hezbollah continues to cling to Hamas and refuses to end the conflict,” Gallant told U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, according to a U.S. Department of Defense statement.

Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was considering firing Gallant, but the prime minister's office denied these reports.

Gallant, who survived an attempt by Netanyahu to depose him in March 2023, is one of several Israeli politicians who disagreed with the Israeli president on war policy.

Netanyahu told Hochstein later on Monday that he was seeking a “fundamental change” in the security situation on Israel's northern border.

The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group has been engaging in almost daily cross-border shelling with Israeli forces since October 7 to express its support for its ally Hamas.

Hezbollah's deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said on Saturday that his group had “no intention of going to war,” but if Israel were to “unleash” one, “there will be great losses on both sides.”

According to an AFP count, 624 people have been killed in cross-border violence in Lebanon since the beginning of October, most of them fighters, but also at least 141 civilians.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.

In central Gaza, survivors searched for rubble after an attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp on Monday.

Ten people were killed and 15 others injured when an airstrike hit the Al-Qassas family home in Nuseirat in the morning, said a medic at Al-Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken.

“My house was hit without warning while we were sleeping,” said survivor Rashed al-Qassas.

The Gaza Strip's Civil Defense Department said six Palestinians were killed overnight in a similar attack on a house belonging to the Bassal family in the Zeitun district of Gaza.

Emergency services later reported six more deaths. Al-Awda Hospital said it had received the bodies of three people killed in Israeli attacks on Nuseirat.

Also embroiled in the Gaza war are Iran-backed Hamas allies across the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, who on Sunday claimed responsibility for a rare rocket attack on central Israel that left no casualties.

Netanyahu replied: “You should know by now that we demand a high price for any attempt to harm us.”

In July, a Houthi drone strike killed a civilian in Tel Aviv, at least 1,800 kilometers from Yemen, leading to retaliatory strikes that caused significant damage and deaths in the rebel-controlled port of Hodeidah.

Since November, the Houthis have been attacking Israel and its perceived interests in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, carrying out attacks that have brought international shipping on vital waterways off the coast of Yemen to a standstill.

In a televised address, the Houthis' leader said the rebels and their regional allies were “preparing for more.”

“Our operations will continue as long as the aggression and siege on the Gaza Strip continue,” said Abdul Malik al-Huthi.

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