October 31, 2023, 8:45 pm (current October 31, 2023, 8:45 pm)
Israeli soldiers killed – Hamas tunnels attacked from the air. ©APA/AFP
According to the army, two Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting with the Islamic group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 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. Israeli soldiers are in “several parts of the northern Gaza Strip,” army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on Tuesday.
Israel continues to advance
The two men in their 20s died on Tuesday in the northern coastal area, the Israeli military said. Two other armed forces were reportedly seriously injured in the fighting. The Israeli army had previously reported “fierce fighting” with Hamas “deep” in the Gaza Strip. The army said dozens of Hamas fighters had been killed in recent hours. Israeli troops struck, among other things, Hamas “cells” responsible for firing anti-tank missiles, he said. They also confiscated numerous weapons and explosives.
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.
Israeli airstrikes continue
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.
According to hospital reports, at least 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Another 150 Palestinians were injured, the director of the Indonesian hospital in the Gaza Strip told Arabic TV channel Al-Jazeera.
Israel does not want a ceasefire
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.
Houthis are also attacking Israel
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.
Declaration requested by Pope Francis
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.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Gaza Catholic parish was apparently damaged when a bullet hit a building. Parish circles reported Tuesday afternoon about damage to the main portal of the complex, where about 700 people are currently staying, according to local priests, Kathpress and the Catholic News Agency reported. There were initially no reports of injuries or deaths. Video recordings showed heavy smoke and people fleeing. There is currently no official confirmation of the incident.
Bombing of Lebanon
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. There have been deaths on both sides. Hezbollah has links to the Islamist group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.
FBI warns of growing terrorist threat
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.
Conflicts also in the West Bank
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”.
Terrorist attack on October 7
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.
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