War in Gaza reaches 6-month mark

Officials and lawmakers marked six months since the militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel, prompting the nation to launch months of retaliatory attacks in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commemorated the six-month mark in an address to his Cabinet. Since the onset of the war, Netanyahu has vowed to eliminate Hamas and has since drawn criticism from the West about Israel’s actions in Gaza, where thousands of civilians have been killed in the war.

“Today we are marking six months of the war. The achievements of the war are considerable: We have eliminated 19 of Hamas’s 24 battalions, including senior commanders. We have cleared out Shifa and other terrorist command centers,” Netanyahu said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.

Netanyahu declared war on Hamas after the militants’ attack killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and took another 240 people as hostages. Since then, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has reported that 33,175 people have been killed in the territory. The ministry does not distinguish between civilian and combatant deaths.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres denounced Israel’s actions over the last six months in a statement on X.

“Six months on, the Israeli military campaign has brought relentless death & destruction to Gaza. Lives shattered. Children dying for lack of food & water. This is incomprehensible & entirely avoidable. Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement Saturday that six months of fighting has left the al-Shifa hospital “in ruins.” WHO said that its mission found that there were no patients left at the hospital as most of the buildings are “extensively damaged or destroyed.”

“Like the majority of the north, Al-Shifa Hospital ­– once the largest and most important referral hospital in Gaza – is now an empty shell after the latest siege,” WHO said in the statement. 

Aid groups and world leaders have labeled the war as a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as much of its population is facing risks of starvation and more than a million people have already been displaced.

Last week, an Israeli airstrike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in the Gaza Strip prompted President Biden to issue some of his harshest criticism against the U.S. ally. Biden said Israel “has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians.”

Biden also urged Netanyahu last week toward a cease-fire deal that would release the remaining hostages in Gaza. He also suggested that U.S. policy on the war will depend on Israel’s ability to safeguard civilians and humanitarian workers.

The Associated Press reported that Israel began to pull some troops from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Sunday as it marked six months of fighting. However, officials said that the troops were reorganizing so that the military could prepare to move into Rafah — a move that the Biden administration has warned Israel against taking.

Some lawmakers continued to voice their support for Israel Sunday, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

“Today, of all days, Washington must be united in our support for our great ally, Israel, as they fight for their sovereignty and right to exist. It’s time to stop lecturing Israel on how it should best defend itself and begin equipping our friend with the resources necessary to eliminate the threat of Hamas, once and for all,” Johnson said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed.