Israeli forces pushed further into the Gaza Strip on Monday, reportedly closing in on the enclave’s main Shifa hospital – which Jerusalem says sits above Hamas’s command center – as they continue to exploit the underground tunnel network and military capabilities following intense counterterrorism attacks group targeted by Hamas the evening before.
In a daily briefing, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said ground forces were “increasing pressure on Gaza City,” believed to be Hamas’ main stronghold, after managing to isolate and encircle the northern strip.
He said the IDF had killed several Hamas field commanders in night airstrikes and operations, “significantly affecting Hamas’s ability to carry out counterattacks.”
Regarding Hamas’s tunnel network, Hagari said that military combat troops would destroy every single tunnel they come across using “various and varied devices.”
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Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also praised the IDF’s operations in Gaza last day, calling them “very impressive.” Gallant said he had approved additional military plans for the ground operation.
“The combination of air force and ground forces is shaking the Gaza Strip,” Gallant said in a video statement.
Commenting on the Hamas field commanders Israel has killed in airstrikes, Gallant said, “Some of them were the ones we eliminated a day or two ago, and they were replaced by others, and they were eliminated as well.”
Gallant said Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “is hiding in his bunker and letting the field commanders die.”
“Our commanders are at the forefront of the force, leading and achieving,” Gallant added.
Smoke rises after an Israeli attack in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023, during the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. (Said Khatib/AFP)
According to the military, Israeli forces operating in northern Gaza located several rocket launchers and more than 50 rockets located at a compound used by a youth movement and at a mosque.
The IDF released a video from the commander of the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion, Lt. Col. Tomer Sayag, showing dozens of rocket launchers that his forces found in a building used by the Palestinian Scout Association.
Sayag said the empty rocket launchers were aimed at Ashkelon or central Israeli cities. The rocket launchers were later destroyed, the IDF said.
Outside, about 50 rockets bearing the logo of the terrorist group Islamic Jihad in Palestine were found in an underground storage facility.
Separately, the IDF released a video showing the 460th Armored Brigade locating a series of empty underground rocket launchers next to a mosque in northern Gaza. The video showed the launchers’ electrical lines running inside the mosque and from where they are activated.
The military also said that the head of the IDF Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, entered the Gaza Strip on Monday with ground troops to conduct an investigation.
The IDF announced the assessment along with the head of the Combat Engineering Corps, Brigadier General. General Ido Mizrahi and other officials addressed the issue of Hamas tunnels.
In Gaza, the general director of Gaza Hospitals claimed that the roof of a building at Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest, was damaged by an Israeli attack, resulting in deaths and injuries.
Mohamed Zaqout claimed on Al Jazeera that the strike killed displaced people who had sought refuge on the top floor. Solar panels on the roof were destroyed in the attack, he said. Israel later denied this claim.
On Monday evening, heavy fighting was reported in the area of the hospital, in which the IDF also used flares.
On Sunday, the IDF released new information indicating that Hamas is using hospitals to conduct its operations. The military has previously accused Hamas of having its main base of operations under Shifa and stockpiling fuel for terror purposes.
A senior Hamas official denied those allegations to reporters in Beirut on Monday. Osama Hamdan claimed that a hole seen in a photo provided by the IDF spokesman was being used to store fuel.
People gather around an ambulance damaged in an Israeli airstrike in front of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 3, 2023. The IDF said it struck an ambulance used by a Hamas cell, killing several Hamas operatives. (MOMEN AL-HALABI / AFP)
As fighting raged in Gaza, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi visited the Israeli Air Force’s F-35I fighter jet fleet and said that Israel “knows how to get anywhere in the Middle East,” an apparent warning to Iran and its proxies.
“We have already been at war for a month, hitting Hamas very, very hard, hitting the leadership of Hamas, hitting the commanders, beating the terrorists, destroying Hamas’ infrastructure in Gaza, and we are also constantly preparing for other areas,” Halevi told soldiers at Nevatim Air Base. “The [air] Base knows how to get anywhere in the Middle East.”
Halevi told the soldiers that he recently saw an F-35I jet providing air support to troops about 200 meters (about 656 feet) away in the Gaza Strip.
“We have never done anything like this before. With very heavy ammunition there is a very good connection between what the [ground] “The power that the plane needs and what the plane knows how to give,” he said. “This connection of air and land together, we always knew it was strong, we now see that it is much stronger than we knew.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi speaks with soldiers at Nevatim Air Base, Nov. 6, 2023. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Also on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had another telephone conversation with US President Joe Biden. A spokesman for the latter said the two had discussed the possibility of a humanitarian pause in the war.
The U.S. believes such breaks would allow civilians to reach safer locations in Gaza, ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians in need and allow possible releases of hostages, said John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
“We see ourselves at the beginning of this conversation, not the end, so you can expect that we will continue to advocate for temporary local pauses,” the NSC spokesperson added, while clarifying that the US is still not doing so Support a more permanent ceasefire as such a move would benefit Hamas.
Pressed on whether U.S. diplomacy is still effective given that both Israel and U.S. allies in the region have refused to support humanitarian pauses, Kirby rejected that premise, noting that Jerusalem initially refused, to allow any aid to the Gaza Strip before addressing the matter and agreeing to the arrival of aid from Egypt after significant pressure from the US.
Kirby said Biden also addressed the need to “hold extremist settlers accountable for their violence in the West Bank” … “while reducing the threat from terrorist groups operating there.”
The two heads of state and government will speak again next day.
According to Channel 12 news, Israel expects the United States to pressure the U.S. on the issue of humanitarian pauses over the next week to 10 days. The television station quoted Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer as saying in internal discussions that the political price would be high if Israel did not comply with the pressure.
US President Joe Biden (left) with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on October 18, 2023 in Tel Aviv. (Haim Zach / GPO)
Earlier on Monday, the IDF opened a four-hour humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip, reiterating its longstanding insistence that civilians move south, where military operations are more limited.
The humanitarian corridor was also open for several hours on Sunday, despite being attacked by Hamas on Saturday.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of trying to prevent Palestinians from evacuating the northern Gaza Strip by shooting at them and bombing evacuation routes, using civilians as human shields or fodder for building international pressure near their centers of activity want to maintain a ceasefire, which increased as the number of civilians increased.
Israel declared war on Hamas after around 3,000 terrorists breached the Gaza border on October 7, slaughtering around 1,400 people – mostly civilians – in communities in southern Israel. They also brought at least 240 hostages to the Strip, including at least 30 babies and children.
Hamas-controlled health authorities in the Gaza Strip said Monday that more than 10,000 people, including many women and children, had been killed in the fighting. The figures released by the terror group cannot be independently verified and are believed to include its own terrorists and gunmen killed in Israel and the Gaza Strip, as well as those killed by hundreds of rockets fired by terror groups who have been neglected within the Gaza Strip.
Israel says its offensive in Gaza is aimed at destroying Hamas’ infrastructure and has vowed to eliminate the entire terror group. It says it is targeting all areas where Hamas operates while trying to minimize civilian casualties.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.