JACK GUEZ / AFP
An Israeli army soldier at Kibbutz Kfar Aza in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip, October 18, 2023.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR – As Israeli bombings overnight and Monday in the besieged Gaza Strip claimed dozens more lives and a massive offensive by the Jewish state’s forces continues to loom, the fate of more than 200 hostages held by Hamas remains unknown.
This Monday, October 23, the Israeli army announced that 222 people had been captured by members of the Palestinian Islamist movement, the highest number since the October 7 attacks.
As SkyNews reports, one of the IDF’s main spokesmen, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, also said that the Israeli army had carried out “limited” ground attacks in the area to target Hamas gunmen and search for hostages, most of whom were being held inside become Gaza Strip.
In one of these attacks, an Israeli soldier was killed, while “one was moderately injured and two were slightly injured by an anti-tank missile,” the Israeli army said, Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reported.
Hamas confirms Israeli ground infiltration
In fact, Hamas has confirmed Israeli infiltration in the Gaza Strip, east of Khan Younis, in the south of the Palestinian enclave strip. “The (Hamas) militants attacked the infiltrated force, destroying two bulldozers and a tank and forcing the force to retreat before safely returning to their base,” Hamas’ military wing said in a statement. A press release, which in turn was passed on by the English channel SkyNews.
The Israeli army, which has been relentlessly bombarding the Gaza Strip since October 7 in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attacks, intensified its bombings this Sunday as a prelude to a likely ground intervention.
The risk of an escalation of the conflict worries the international community, while Iran, Hamas’ ally and supporter, warns that the situation in the Middle East, which has become a “powder keg”, could spiral out of control. In the Gaza Strip, international aid began arriving in floods on Saturday through Egypt, the only market not controlled by Israel, but in very insufficient quantities, according to the United Nations.
See also on HuffPost:
You cannot view this content because:
- By subscribing, you have opted out of cookies related to third-party content. You will therefore not be able to play our videos, which require third-party cookies to function.
- You are using an ad blocker. We recommend you disable it to access our videos.
If neither of these two cases apply to you, contact us at [email protected].