10/31/2023 9:10 pm (current 10/31/2023 9:20 pm)
Israel advances ground operations in the Gaza Strip ©APA/AFP
According to Israeli and Palestinian sources, dozens of people were killed in attacks in Jabalia, in the north of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday. The army had previously announced that Israel was advancing ground troops into the Gaza Strip. In 24 hours, around 300 targets were attacked and dozens of terrorists were killed. According to the army, two Israeli soldiers were also killed in the fighting.
The Israeli army said ground troops killed around 50 terrorists in Jabalia. At least 35 people, including children and women, died, according to a doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital. In addition, more than 200 injured people were admitted to the clinic, said Hussam Abu Safija of the German Press Agency.
The Israeli military spoke of a “large-scale attack” on a “Hamas military stronghold” in the west of the city. Terrorists, among other things, were trained there. Airplanes were also used. The tunnels also collapsed as a result of the attack.
Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari, who was reportedly involved in the Hamas massacres in the Israeli border area on October 7, was killed during the operation. Hamas controlled civilian buildings in the area. The army repeated its appeal to Gazans to flee south.
Two Israeli soldiers in their 20s died on Tuesday in the northern coastal area, the military said. Two other armed forces were reportedly seriously injured in the fighting.
The Essedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, reported ambushing Israeli troops in the Al-Tawam area, in the north of the Palestinian territory, and opening fire on advancing military vehicles. Army spokesman Conricus had previously said that heavily armored vehicles, tanks, armored fighting vehicles and bulldozers had been moved to the Gaza Strip. He said he understood that the humanitarian situation in the densely populated coastal strip was difficult. However, this is not the fault of the Israeli army.
Additionally, the army said it carried out airstrikes against around 300 targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. These included rocket launch pads and “military positions in underground tunnels belonging to the terrorist organization Hamas.” “Terrorists” were killed.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported Israeli shelling near one of its hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, where around 14,000 civilians sought shelter. “Artillery and airstrikes underway in the Tel al-Hawa area of the Gaza Strip, where al-Kuds hospital is located,” the organization said. Israel accuses Hamas of hiding its “command centers” under hospitals and using civilians as “human shields”. Hamas rejects this.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu categorically dismissed calls for a humanitarian ceasefire. There will be no ceasefire, he said on Monday night. Israel has received support from the US, which has currently also rejected a ceasefire requested by the UN, among others.
However, such a ceasefire “has become a matter of life and death for millions of people,” said the head of the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini. He complained that the aid so far was far from enough. “The few convoys allowed through Rafah are nothing compared to the needs of more than two million people trapped in Gaza,” said Lazzarini. According to him, 64 UNRWA personnel have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
Rafah sits on the border between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel completely isolated the Gaza Strip in response to the Palestinian organization’s major attack. According to the UN, there is a lack of water, food, fuel and medicine.
He had the feeling that “things are moving extremely slowly and the work of UNRWA is being disrupted,” said Hisham Adwan, the official in charge of the Rafah Egyptian border crossing in the Gaza Strip. According to him, 36 trucks with relief supplies had been waiting there since the previous day.
According to a US official who preferred to remain anonymous, tons of humanitarian aid is accumulating in Rafah and should initially be verified by the Israeli side. Israel wants to ensure that no Hamas weapons or equipment enters the Gaza Strip.
In addition to the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army reported on Tuesday that it had intercepted a rocket fired from an area in the Red Sea. A few hours earlier, Houthi rebels in Yemen said they had launched drone strikes against Israel. Like Hamas in the Gaza Strip and other Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq, the Houthis are supported by Iran.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog expects the Pope to make a clear statement on behalf of Israel. “I hope all the moral voices in the world sound very resolute. I would also like to hear a very strong statement from the Holy See,” Herzog said in an interview with the talk show “Porta a Porta”, broadcast on Rai 1. on Tuesday. He highlighted the “plight” of Christians in the Middle East. “I would like to hear the Pope make a clear statement about the children in Gaza, there are 30 children, babies as young as nine months old, who have been kidnapped. Who can justify this horror?”, added Herzog.
Taking into account the crisis in the Middle East, several actors seek the support of the Holy See, whose voice is given moral weight in international issues. On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with Pope Francis. Also in recent days, the Israeli embassy to the Holy See sought to organize a meeting of family members of Hamas hostages in Israel with the leader of the Church.
The Israeli army claims to have once again attacked a “terrorist cell” in Lebanon. The military said on Tuesday it planned to fire anti-tank missiles at Israel. Additionally, anti-tank missiles were fired at two Israeli army positions near the border. The army was responding to the bombing, it was said. Since the start of the war in Gaza, there have been increasing clashes between the Israeli army and the Shiite militia Hezbollah, on the border between Israel and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the FBI warned of a growing terrorist threat following the Hamas attack on Israel. Since the war between Israel and Hamas began in early October, several foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West, FBI Chief Christopher Wray said at a congressional hearing on Tuesday. It is the strongest threat since the rise of the Islamic State (IS) almost a decade ago.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell strongly condemned Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. In calls with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan and the secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, Borrell expressed concern about the rise in settler attacks in the West Bank, his office said. . At the same time, Borrell called for the peace process in the Middle East to be “revived” as quickly as possible and for a “permanent and sustainable solution” to the conflict to be reached “on the basis of a two-state solution”.
Hamas launched an unprecedented major attack against Israel on October 7th. According to Israeli data, at least 1,400 people in Israel were killed. According to the army, Hamas also abducted at least 240 people from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian militant organization has already released four of those kidnapped, and a kidnapped soldier was freed by the army on Monday.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel has since placed the Gaza Strip under constant fire. Hundreds of thousands of people fled south along the densely populated coastal strip. According to Hamas figures that cannot be independently verified, Israeli bombings have killed more than 8,500 Palestinians since October 7.