- LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- According to Hamas, militants are attacking Israeli military positions in the north and south of the Gaza Strip
- Netanyahu says a halt to fighting “will not happen”
- The United Nations says all Israeli water supplies to Gaza have been suspended
GAZA/JERUSALEM, Oct 31 (Portal) – Hamas said its militants in Gaza fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli invading forces early on Tuesday, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls for an end to the fighting that is easing the Palestinian enclave’s humanitarian crisis would have aggravated.
Israel has expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip to punish the country’s ruling Hamas movement for a deadly rampage three weeks ago that Israeli authorities said killed over 1,400 people.
Witnesses said Israeli forces attacked Gaza’s main north-south road on Monday, attacking Gaza City from two directions. Israel said its troops freed a soldier from Hamas captivity, one of 239 hostages Israel said were captured on October 7.
The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, said militants clashed early Tuesday with Israeli forces who “entered the southern Gaza axis, (also) with machine guns, and four al-Yassin 105 vehicles missiles attacked,” citing locally manufactured anti-tank missiles.
The militants also targeted two Israeli tanks and bulldozers in northwest Gaza with the rockets, al-Qassam said.
Portal could not confirm reports of fighting. Israel’s military had no immediate comment.
Health authorities in the Gaza Strip say 8,306 people, including 3,457 minors, have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7. U.N. officials say more than 1.4 million of Gaza’s roughly 2.3 million civilian population have been left homeless.
The rising death toll has led to calls from the United States, Israel’s main ally, other countries and the United Nations for a pause in fighting to allow more humanitarian aid to reach the enclave.
Netanyahu said late Monday that Israel would not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas in Gaza and would press ahead with its plans to destroy the group.
“Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. “That will not happen,” Netanyahu said in a televised address.
Military experts said Israeli forces were moving slowly on their ground offensive, partly to keep open the possibility that Hamas militants were negotiating the release of the hostages.
The relative caution with which Israeli troops have captured and secured parts of the territory in the first days of sustained ground operations in Gaza contrasts with the relentless airstrikes on the Mediterranean enclave over the past three weeks, as well as Israel’s previous land offensives there.
“DISASTER ON A DISASTER”
The Israeli military said it has struck more than 600 militant targets in recent days in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian civilians are in desperate need of fuel, food and clean water.
The UN Office for Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) said that water supplies through a pipeline from Israel to the southern Gaza Strip were interrupted on Monday “for unknown reasons” and that an announced repair of another pipeline to the central Gaza Strip had not taken place .
“At the time of writing, water from Israel is not being delivered to Gaza,” OCHA said on its website.
Significantly fewer trucks carrying humanitarian aid have reached the besieged enclave than necessary, U.N. officials said, and civil order has broken down as people stormed U.N. warehouses in search of food.
This has put four UN aid distribution centers and a camp out of operation, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.
“It is a disaster on top of a disaster. “Health needs are rising rapidly and our ability to meet those needs is rapidly declining,” said Rick Brennan, chief of the World Health Organization’s regional emergency response agency, reiterating international calls for a ceasefire to enable a major humanitarian operation.
Last week, aid trucks from Egypt entered Gaza through Rafah, the main crossing that does not border Israel. Since Israel imposed a “total siege” on Gaza after October 7, it has become the main hub for aid deliveries.
The White House said it was working to bring more aid trucks to Gaza.
hostages
Hamas released a video on Monday showing three hostages seized by the Islamist movement on October 7.
The women – identified by Netanyahu as Yelena Trupanob, Danielle Aloni and Rimon Kirsht – sat side by side against a bare wall, and Aloni directed an angry message to the prime minister.
Netanyahu condemned the video as “cruel psychological propaganda” and said Israel’s ground campaign created opportunities to rescue the hostages.
The conflict has sparked demonstrations in support of Palestinians around the world, as well as anti-Semitic and Islamophobic harassment.
Biden administration officials expressed concern about reports of anti-Jewish incidents at U.S. universities and met with American Jewish leaders on Monday to discuss steps to combat the surge, a White House official said.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin accused the West and Ukraine of fomenting unrest in Russia after rioters stormed an airport in the predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan to “catch” Jewish passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Yomna Ehab, Ali Swafta, James Mackenzie, Henriette Chacar, Dan Williams, Emma Farge and Jonathan Landay; Writing by Idrees Ali; Edited by Rami Ayyub and Stephen Coates
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