Hamas is no longer a military formation, Israel announced almost a year after it began a fierce and merciless offensive in Gaza that killed many militants and tens of thousands of civilians.

Israel went to war in response to a sudden mass attack by Hamas terrorists on Israeli settlements that killed more than 1.200 people and took 250 hostages in just one day. Israeli officials insist that despite the massive civilian casualties, suffering and destruction in Gaza, the war will not stop until the threat posed by Hamas to the people of Israel is eliminated. Defense Minister Yoav Galant's statement indicates that that goal has not yet been met, but also that Hamas has suffered serious losses.

- Hamas as a military formation no longer exists. Hamas is now engaged in a guerrilla war and we are still fighting Hamas terrorists and prosecuting the leadership - Minister Gallant said.

The Israel Defense Forces said more than half of the members of the Palestinian group's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, had been eliminated, and that more than 14.000 of the group's fighters had been killed or neutralized, out of a total membership of 30.000 to 40.000 it had previously estimated. the war started last October.

Netanyahu refuses

Gallant expressed his support for reaching an agreement to release the remaining hostages, which Hamas is hiding in locations in Gaza, as the first stage of reaching a truce. That, according to the minister, would give Israel "a strategic opportunity to focus on other security challenges."

- Returning the hostages home is the right thing - said Gallant.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has steadfastly rejected intense pressure from the hostages' relatives and much of the public to urgently reach a ceasefire deal that would allow the people trapped in Gaza to be freed while they are still alive. Netanyahu is not giving up on the hostages, but he is categorically against fulfilling Israel's commitment as part of the plan to release Palestinians imprisoned for terrorism.

However, the "Philadelphia" corridor, along the border of Gaza with Egypt, all the way to Netzarim, through which people should be evacuated, is being negotiated and already determined. Netanyahu insists Israel maintains control of the corridor "to prevent smuggling and the extraction of terrorists." Hamas, on the other hand, demands the complete withdrawal of Israeli ground forces from Gaza.

Israeli forces not only do not retreat, but continue their merciless attacks on Hamas targets, in which civilians almost always suffer.

Three huge bombs on refugee tents

Just last night, more than 40 people were killed and dozens more were wounded during Israeli airstrikes on a location that was designated as a humanitarian zone. Israel said the airstrikes targeted a "Hamas operational center in the Han Yunis refugee camp" and that "all necessary steps were taken to reduce the risk of civilian casualties."

Residents of Al Mawasi humanitarian zone, however, say that the target of the three attacks were tents housing displaced persons and that the bombs made craters up to 7 meters deep.

- Forty people were killed and more than 60 were injured, while many more are under rubble and sand - the operations director of the local Civil Protection told the BBC.

Members of voluntary rescue groups said there were at least 20 refugee tents at the site where the three craters now are.

– Our teams are still evacuating martyrs and wounded from the site that was hit. This seems like another Israeli massacre - said a representative of the Civil Protection.

Ankara was the first to react, calling the attack on al-Mawasi a "war crime".

- We condemn the Israeli massacre of dozens of Palestinians during an attack on civilian tents in a humanitarian zone near Khan Yunis... Israel has added a new crime to its list of war crimes - announced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan persistently accuses Israel of genocide and demands that it be punished by international institutions, and criticizes Western countries for supporting the Israeli offensive.

Guterres: Israel does not want UN peacekeepers

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said before last night's attack that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic.

– The level of suffering we are witnessing in Gaza cannot be compared to anything else during my tenure as Secretary General of the United Nations. I have never seen such a high level of death and destruction, as we see in Gaza in the past few months - said Guterres, who came to the head of the UN seven years ago.

Stressing the need for a ceasefire, Guterres noted that the UN had offered to monitor the truce "no matter what", but added that it was "unrealistic to think" that the United Nations could play a role in Gaza's future, either as a peacekeeping force. either as administrators, because Israel would never accept that.

- Of course we are ready to do everything that the international community will ask of us. The question is whether the parties will accept it, especially whether Israel will accept it - said Guterres.

Since the start of the Israeli offensive, 41.020 people have been killed in Gaza, and 94.925 have been wounded, according to yesterday's tally of the local Ministry of Health. Almost all of the belt's 2,3 million inhabitants have been displaced. Some people have been forced to change locations ten times, withdrawing from zones that Israeli forces have declared "military".