The Israeli military claims to have killed several Hamas terrorists in violent nighttime fighting in the Gaza Strip. Soldiers from the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade and armored troops from the 53rd Battalion fought several terrorist commandos overnight, the Israeli military announced on Telegram on Friday morning.
The soldiers fought a long battle against the fighters under heavy fire, it was said, without providing any information about the location of the fighting. The terrorists fired anti-tank missiles, detonated explosives and tried to climb onto Israeli soldiers’ vehicles. They were killed in the process. At the same time, ground troops launched airstrikes with fighter planes and artillery, he said. The terrorists were killed and the danger to the troops was averted.
At the same time, the Israeli army had to increase the number of Israeli soldiers killed on Friday morning. The armed forces have released the names of four more soldiers killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip. This brought the number of soldiers killed to 23.
Netanyahu sees “peak of battle”
As early as Thursday night, the military spoke of having surrounded Gaza City on all sides. “Troops have completed the siege of the city of Gaza, the center of the terrorist organization Hamas,” said military spokesman Daniel Hagari. During the day, the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the stages of the advance on Gaza City. Netanyahu spoke of Israel being “at the height of the battle”.
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Almost at the same time, the military wing of Hamas threatened that the invasion of the Gaza Strip would become a “curse” for Israeli troops. “More soldiers will return home in body bags,” said a spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades.
According to Hamas, at least 27 people were killed in one of the Israeli attacks on the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza City, near a UN school, on Thursday. There were also a “large number” of injuries, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said. The numbers could not be independently verified.
Blinken wants to call for ceasefire
Given the Israeli advance, a ceasefire currently seems unlikely. However, US Secretary of State Blinken wants to campaign for such a policy during his visit to Israel on Friday. In addition to a key commitment to support Israel, he will push for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting in the Gaza Strip, allow additional humanitarian aid to the Strip and create a better environment for the possible release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, Blinken said. he said before his arrival in Israel.
Portal/Jonathan Ernst US Secretary of State Blinken landed in Israel again on Friday morning
The US Secretary of State’s plane landed in Tel Aviv on Friday morning. A meeting with Netanyahu is scheduled for this morning. Blinken is then expected to meet with members of Israel’s War Cabinet, Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog and opposition leader Jair Lapid.
US searches for hostages with drones
The release of hostages is also in the national interest of the United States. Washington assumes that among the more than 200 hostages kidnapped by Hamas there are ten North American citizens whose whereabouts are unknown. According to insiders, the US has been flying surveillance drones over the Gaza Strip for a week in search of hostages.
Several other countries are also trying to free citizens who are being held hostage by Hamas. Thailand, for example, announced that it would count on Iran to mediate, among other things, the release of the 23 Thai citizens.
Israel sends Palestinians back to Gaza Strip
Although foreign citizens were able to leave the Gaza Strip for Egypt through the Rafah border crossing in recent days, Israel announced that it would send Palestinian workers back to the Gaza Strip. “There will be no more Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip” in Israel, the Israeli security office said on Thursday night. “The workers from the Gaza Strip who were in Israel the day the war started will be sent back to Gaza,” and Israel is breaking contact with the Palestinian territory, he said.
Portal/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa Israel sent Palestinian workers back to the Gaza Strip on Friday
According to the Israeli Authority for Civil Affairs in the Occupied Territories (COGAT), around 18,500 people from the Gaza Strip have work permits in Israel. The authority did not say how many Palestinian workers were in Israel when the war began and would be affected by repatriation. On Friday morning, eyewitnesses reported the first people leaving Israel through the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Photos showed dozens of men crossing the border on foot into the southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Authority should no longer receive money for Gaza
Israel’s security cabinet also wants to deduct all funds destined for the Gaza Strip from payments to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The statement did not say whether Israel would take back the remaining millions of dollars in payments to the West Bank Autonomous Authority. According to several media reports, the security cabinet decided this.
According to the information, the amount now retained amounts to the equivalent of almost 24 million euros. Israel’s right-wing finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, announced earlier this week that he would temporarily freeze payments to the Palestinian Authority for allegedly supporting the October 7 attack by Islamic terrorists. The terrorist organization Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, is largely responsible for the massive attack.