The Israel Defense Forces said it had “split Gaza in two” after tank battalions surrounded Gaza City in preparation for a ground attack on Hamas.
“Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the militant Hamas group that rules the enclave.
According to the Israeli press, troops are now expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours – an operation that would mark a new chapter in the conflict that began nearly a month ago when Hamas gunmen stormed Israel, killing about 1,400 people slaughtered.
The north of the Gaza Strip was hit by incessant Israeli airstrikes overnight Sunday into Monday morning, as the IDF tries to soften Hamas strongholds in Gaza City before its soldiers are forced to move on foot through the dangerous streets.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said more than 9,700 Palestinians had been killed in the nearly month-long war in Gaza, more than 4,000 of them children and minors. The death toll reached over 200 last day.
Israel has accused Hamas of war crimes and presented new evidence it says shows the terror group is using hospitals in the Gaza Strip as military bases while preventing civilians from escaping.
At the Sheikh Hamad Hospital, known as the “Qatar Hospital,” Rear Admiral Hagari said he showed photographic evidence of tunnel entrances along the building discovered by Israeli troops.
Hagari said Hamas was operating from the hospital because it knew the IDF could not launch an airstrike on them without causing collateral damage.
This handout image released by the Israeli army on November 5, 2023 shows Israeli tanks and soldiers stationed at a location in the northern Gaza Strip as fighting continues between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement
This image, taken on November 5, 2023, from a position near Sderot on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, shows flares dropped by Israeli forces over the Palestinian enclave during fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement last for
On November 5, 2023, Israeli forces will be stationed on the Gaza border in southern Israel
Israeli soldiers take part in a military operation in a place called Gaza, amid the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas
Smoke and flames rise during Israeli attacks amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza City, November 5, 2023
At a civilian facility, the Sheikh Hamad, known as the “Qatar Hospital,” Hagari showed photographic evidence of tunnel entrances next to the building discovered by Israeli troops
According to the IDF, the footage shows entrances to Hamas tunnels under a hospital
On the ground, Israeli forces in Gaza have reported finding caches of weapons, including at times explosives, suicide drones and rockets.
The Israeli military says 29 of its soldiers have died in the ground operation so far.
Israeli Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus today firmly stated the IDF’s intentions for Gaza.
“We will take the fight to Hamas, wherever it is – underground, above ground.” “We will be able to dismantle Hamas, one fortress at a time, one battalion at a time, until we have achieved the ultimate goal, which is the liberation of the Gaza Strip – the entire Gaza Strip – from Hamas,” he said.
Critics, meanwhile, say Israel’s attacks on Gaza are often disproportionate given the large number of civilians killed.
Gaza suffered its third communications blackout yesterday as Israeli tank columns surrounded Gaza City.
The “collapse of connectivity” across the Gaza Strip, reported by internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmed by Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel, made it even more difficult for rescue workers to relay the details of developments on the ground.
“We have lost communication with the vast majority of UNRWA team members,” said UN Palestinian refugee agency spokeswoman Juliette Touma.
As Israeli troops formed up in Gaza yesterday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank, a day after meeting Arab foreign ministers in Jordan.
Mr. Abbas, who has had no authority in Gaza since Hamas seized power in 2007, said the Palestinian Authority would only take control of Gaza as part of a “comprehensive political solution” that would create an independent state covering the West Bank and East Jerusalem includes Israel captured in the 1967 war.
His comments appeared to further limit the already slim possibilities of who would govern Gaza if Israel topples Hamas.
Children stand in a building destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on November 6, 2023
A Palestinian man carries the body of a child killed in an Israeli bombing as he leaves Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital
People search buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023 in Khan Yunis, Gaza
Palestinian children sit in front of the rubble of a destroyed building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023
A look at military action in a location referred to as Gaza amid the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in this screenshot from a handout video released on November 6, 2023
Relatives of Palestinians who died in the Israeli airstrikes gather around the bodies recovered from the mortuary of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital before the mourning ceremony in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, November 6, 2023
The minister’s meeting with Abbas came as a Palestinian stabbed and wounded two members of Israel’s paramilitary Border Police in East Jerusalem before being shot – another sign of increasing unrest in the region.
Mr. Blinken later visited Iraq to meet with Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani about the need to prevent the conflict from spreading and efforts to increase the flow of aid to Gaza, which Mr. Blinken described as providing about 100 truckloads “completely inadequate” day.
A Jordanian military cargo plane airdropped medical aid to a field hospital in northern Gaza, King Abdullah II said on social media.
This appeared to be the first aid provided by Jordan, a key U.S. ally that has a peace agreement with Israel.
Earlier in his trip, Mr. Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who reiterated on Sunday that “there will be no ceasefire without the return of our abductees.”
Arab leaders have called for an immediate ceasefire.
But Mr Blinken said that “Hamas would simply stay put and be able to regroup and repeat what it did on October 7” when it stormed into southern Israel from Gaza and started the war.
Large residential areas in the north of the Gaza Strip were razed to the ground by air strikes.
The U.N. humanitarian affairs office says more than half of the remaining residents, estimated at around 300,000, are seeking refuge in U.N.-run facilities.
According to the United Nations, 88 Palestinian refugee agency staff were killed, “the highest death toll the United Nations has ever recorded in a single conflict.”
Around 1.5 million people in Gaza, or 70 percent of the population, are believed to have fled their homes.
Food, water and the fuel needed for the generators that power hospitals are almost empty because no fuel has been delivered for almost a month, the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency said.
Ongoing Palestinian rocket fire has also forced tens of thousands of people in Israel to flee their homes.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a surprise visit to Baghdad on November 5, following a trip to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank earlier in the day
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (l) shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Palestinian Muqataa presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah on November 5, 2023
Black smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab, a Lebanese border village with Israel in southern Lebanon, Saturday, November 4, 2023. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, there have been regular clashes on the Lebanese-Israeli border between Israeli forces on the one hand and Hezbollah and armed Palestinian groups on the other
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the mountainous areas around the villages of Rachaya Al Foukhar and Kfarhamam in Hasbaya district of Nabatie governorate, Lebanon, November 4, 2023
Palestinian activists shout slogans during a march expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza in front of the British Embassy in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, October 13, 2023
The war has raised tensions as Israel and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group engaged in a firefight along the border.
Four civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Sunday evening, including three children, a local civil defense official and state media reported.
The Israeli military said it attacked Hezbollah targets in response to anti-tank fire that killed an Israeli civilian.
Hezbollah said it fired Grad rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon in response.
The British Foreign Office said this morning it would withdraw some British Embassy staff from Lebanon amid fears that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could spiral out of control.
The FCDO said it had already advised Brits against all travel to Lebanon due to the conflict between neighboring Israel and Gaza and encouraged any Brits still in the country to leave while commercial flights remain in place.
“In southern Lebanon, on the border with Israel, there are constant mortar and artillery battles as well as air strikes.” “Tensions are high and events could escalate without warning, which could affect or restrict exit routes from Lebanon,” it said in an FCDO statement.
“Due to the security situation, some British Embassy staff and all family members of staff have been temporarily withdrawn. “The embassy continues to carry out essential work, including services to British nationals.”
On Sunday, IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said his army was ready to go on the offensive in Lebanon if necessary.
“We have set ourselves the goal of restoring a significantly better security situation at the borders, not just in the Gaza Strip,” Halevi explained during an assessment with the 210th Division in northern Israel.
“We are ready to go on the offensive in the north at any time.” “We understand that it can happen and we trust that the defense here is strong,” he added.
His statement came a day after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened to escalate the war against Israel and warned of a “real battle.”
Meanwhile, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, at least two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid in Abu Dis, just outside Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The military said a militant who set up an armed cell and fired on Israeli forces was killed.
At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the war began.
Many Israelis have called for Mr. Netanyahu’s resignation and the return of some 240 hostages held by Hamas, but Mr. Netanyahu has refused to accept responsibility for the security breach that led to the Oct. 7 attacks.
In another expression of widespread anger, Amihai Eliyahu, a junior government minister, suggested in a radio interview that Israel could drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza.
He later called the comments “metaphorical.”
Mr. Netanyahu suspended Mr. Eliyahu from Cabinet meetings, a move with no practical impact.