MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP
A photo taken on October 30, 2023 from the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border shows Israeli bombings in the northern Gaza Strip.
INTERNATIONAL – As Israel’s offensive against Hamas has intensified significantly since Friday, the Prime Minister of the Jewish state Benjamin Netanyahu outlined his army’s tactical advances in the Gaza Strip.
After the bombings, incursions and initial ground fighting in the north of the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army has “expanded its land invasion into the Gaza Strip, it is doing so in measured and very forceful steps and is proceeding methodically,” it said on Monday evening. October 30, Benjamin Netanyahu.
An advance that allows the Israeli leader to announce that his military operation is entering the “third phase.” This Tuesday, October 31, the Israeli army announced that its troops were “stationed in various parts of the northern Gaza Strip” and were equipped with heavily armored vehicles, tanks, bulldozers and armored fighting vehicles.
The army, quoted by the BBC, confirms that it is “focusing its activities on the northern part of Gaza, which is Hamas’ center of gravity.” However, the IDF continues to conduct “strikes in other parts of the Gaza Strip” and continues to persecute Hamas “commanders.”
“We attack their infrastructure and every time there is an important target, we hit it,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus added.
This advance into Gaza had already seen these premises on Monday morning, when Israeli tanks were spotted on the outskirts of Gaza City for more than an hour before retreating. For the first time since the war began, Hamas confirmed “intense fighting” north of the city of 2.4 million people.
“Question of life or death”
In his speech this Monday evening, the Israeli Prime Minister reiterated his categorical refusal to grant a ceasefire at a time when his offensive is intensifying and Gaza has been bombed daily since October 9, two days after the Hamas attack.
“Calls for a ceasefire are calls for surrender to Hamas. “This will not happen,” Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated, as the humanitarian situation there continues to deteriorate. The army has also confirmed this matter, but believes that this situation “is not their fault.”
Israel was also encouraged in its decision by the United States, which staunchly supports the Hebrew state, which currently supports “humanitarian pauses” and that a ceasefire is not “the right answer at this time.”
Local associations and the United Nations continue to recommend a ceasefire, citing the urgent need to end the fighting to allow the delivery of several tons of humanitarian aid that have stalled at the Rafah border post, the only entry point from Egypt to Palestine.
“The few convoys approved through Rafah are nothing compared to the needs of more than two million people stuck in Gaza,” denounced the head of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini. Only 117 aid trucks have arrived in Gaza since October 21, according to a United Nations count on Monday morning.
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