Gaza is “cut in two”: Israeli tanks invade the city

The ground operation in the Gaza Strip is in full swing, the Israeli army is within the city limits of Beit Hanoun, and the geopolitical balance in the Middle East is changing dramatically.

Meanwhile, as the Jerusalem Post reports, according to satellite images published today, Tuesday (31/10), by the New York Times, Israeli tanks are located about 5 km from the center of Gaza City. According to the publication, “satellite images show the significant scale of one of Israel’s main advances in northern Gaza.”

The photographs below show the positions of Israeli army tanks that reached Al-Bahr Avenue, the main road running through Gaza from the beach to Jabaliya, as well as the northwestern edge of the Gaza Strip Beit Hanouna.

Extensive piece by @Josh_H et al. @nytimes analysing satellite imagery taken today of Gaza.

"A Detailed Satellite View of Israel’s Invasion" https://t.co/lsYwwMXRJa https://t.co/RXOSCMgUSX pic.twitter.com/E3hlJPQdcW

— Will Marshall (@Will4Planet) October 31, 2023

Footage of ground troops in the Gaza Strip

"כולם מביטים בנו כעת. כמוני, הם סומכים עליכם ומאמינים בכם, אתם דור הניצחון":

פקודת ההתקפה של מפקד פיקוד הדרום, אלוף ירון פינקלמן לכוחות היבשה הפועלים ברצועת עזה. pic.twitter.com/w00j96RF92

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 31, 2023

“Everyone is looking at us now. You, like me, are trusted and believed in you, you are the generation of victory,” – an order from the commander of the Southern Command, General Yaron Finkelman, on the offensive of ground forces operating in the Gaza Strip.

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מפקד פיקוד דרום בהערכת מצב ברצועת עזה: pic.twitter.com/bKAJZtTg7Q

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 31, 2023

Indeed, as stated in the IDF’s Platform X announcement, in the past 24 hours, ground operations have targeted terrorist installations and infrastructure, including:

• Anti-tank missiles. Anti-tank missile positions.
• Missile launch pads.
• Terrorist complexes in underground tunnels.

IDF: Hamas commander who plotted the October 7 attack was killed

Israeli fire killed the Hamas commander who organized the terrorist attacks in the Erez and Netiv areas of Hasar on October 7, Nasim Abu Ajina, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported. In particular, according to the IDF statement, he was killed in an airstrike carried out on information received by the Shin Bet security service and the Military Intelligence Directorate. The statement also noted that “his elimination represents a significant blow to the efforts of the terrorist organization Hamas to create obstacles to Israeli army ground operations” in the Gaza Strip.

צה"ל ושב"כ חיסלו את מפקד גדוד בית לאהיה של ארגון הטרור חמאס.

מטוסי קרב בהכוונת מידע מודיעיני של אמ"ן ושב״כ, חיסלו אמש את מפקד גדוד בית לאהיה בחטיבה הצפונית של חמאס, נסים אבו עג'ינה, אשר שילח את המתקפות הרצחניות של חמאס ב-7 באוקטובר לקיבוץ ארז ולמושב נתיב העשרה >> pic.twitter.com/xFXstgkSQS

— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) October 31, 2023

The IDF and Shin Bet eliminated the commander of the Beit Lahiya battalion of the Hamas terrorist organization. Fighters, guided by intelligence from Amman and Shin Bet, last night killed the commander of the Beit Lahiya battalion of the Northern Hamas Brigade, Nasim Abu Ajin, who on October 7 directed murderous Hamas attacks on Kibbutz Erez and Moshav Netiv Hatara.

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Abu Ajina was the commander of the Beit Lahiya battalion as part of Hamas’ Northern Division

Previously, Ajina oversaw the Hamas air force and participated in the development of drones and anti-aircraft weapons. Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded in the Eilat area on the Red Sea today. The Israeli military said the alarm was caused by possible infiltration by enemy aircraft. Later it became known that Israel shot down a drone over the Red Sea.

300 targets were struck during the night
Earlier, Israeli troops said that during ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Monday (30/10) “many” Hamas militants were killed, noting that they hit about 300 targets. They noted that among the targets hit by ground, air and sea forces were launch sites for guided anti-tank missiles and rockets, entrances to tunnels and Hamas military installations.

🔴WATCH: IDF ground forces on operations inside the Gaza Strip

Stay up-to-date with all the latest from day 25 of Israel's war against Hamas here: https://t.co/1NzKmEBOxf pic.twitter.com/EQAI9Gagsf

— The Jerusalem Post (@Jerusalem_Post) October 31, 2023

Netanyahu on Gaza civilians: “A legitimate act of war with tragic consequences”

With the number of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip growing by the hour, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu avoided criticism, noting that it was “a legitimate act of war with tragic consequences.” Moreover, he did not hesitate to compare the war waged in the Middle East, which has a long history in this region, with the Allied struggle against Nazism in World War II. The Allies, he said, “continued the war to the end, despite the tragic consequences, because they knew that the future of civilization and all mankind was at stake.” “So now I’m telling you that the future of our civilization is at stake,” the Israeli prime minister added.

The situation in Gaza is desperate

The Israeli army is “methodically” moving into the Gaza Strip, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire in the war against Hamas, which is called for by humanitarian organizations that say the situation in the Palestinian territory is catastrophic.

“The IDF has expanded its land entry into the Gaza Strip in measured and very strong stages, acting methodically,” Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, according to whom the “third phase” of the military operation had begun.

Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus confirmed this morning (31/10) that “Israeli troops are in various parts of the northern Gaza Strip.”

“It included heavy armored vehicles, tanks, armored fighting vehicles, bulldozers,” he said, adding that he also understands that “the (humanitarian) situation is difficult, but this is not because of us.”

The Israeli offensive was launched in retaliation for the deadly Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7. It has been a very difficult ordeal for Gaza’s 2.4 million residents, who have been subjected to relentless bombing and, since October 9, a “total siege” with water, food and electricity supplies cut off.

“The number of convoys allowed to pass through Rafah is nothing compared to the needs of the more than 2 million people trapped in Gaza,” condemned the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini. He called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, which has become a matter of life or death for millions of people.” This possibility was categorically excluded by Netanyahu. “Calls for a ceasefire are calls for capitulation to Hamas. This will not happen,” he stressed.

For Washington, an Israeli ally, a ceasefire “is not the right answer at this moment,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, who spoke more of a “humanitarian pause.”

Great concern in hospitals

Tons of humanitarian aid are piling up at the Rafah border crossing separating Egypt from the Gaza Strip, awaiting Israeli inspection, according to a U.S. official who asked not to be named.

Since 21 October, just 117 aid trucks have arrived in Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade and overrun by Hamas since 2007, according to the latest UN tally made yesterday, Monday morning. The Israeli Ministry of Defense body that oversees civilian activities in the Palestinian territories, COGAT, announced today that 39 more trucks arrived yesterday.

Hamas says Israeli shelling has killed 8,306 people since October 7, most of them civilians. “Almost 70 percent of those killed were children and women. This cannot be ‘collateral damage,'” Lazzarini said, expressing regret.

The condition of hospitals is also a cause for concern as thousands of civilians have taken refuge there. The Palestinian Red Crescent today reported new strikes in the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital. “The building is shaking and displaced civilians, as well as groups working there, are scared and panicking,” the organization wrote in X.

Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals to hide weapons or militants, which the Islamist movement denies. In Gaza, doctors are “even performing operations on the floor” and caesarean sections or “amputations on children without anesthesia” due to a shortage of medicines, Doctors of the World (MMR) complained yesterday, Monday.

Due to the lack of drinking water, “people are drinking sea water, people in my group have diarrhea, their children will be dehydrated for several days,” added the NGO’s vice-president Jean-François Corti.

“Hamas must release all hostages”

In Israel, according to authorities, more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed on the day of the Hamas attack on October 7. Hundreds of Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into Israeli territory to carry out the deadliest attack since Israel’s creation in 1948, deeply traumatizing Israeli society. They also kidnapped hundreds of people, 238 of whom are still in their hands, Conricus said today.

One of them, a female soldier, was released during a ground operation, the Israeli army said yesterday, adding that she was doing well and had been reunited with her family. Another 4 women were released by Hamas last week.

Israel’s Foreign Minister confirmed the death of abducted German-Israeli woman Shani Luk yesterday. “Her skull was found, her executioners cut off her head,” said an emotional Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

“We want the international community to put pressure on Hamas to release all the hostages,” said Adwa Adar, a French-Israeli woman whose grandmother was kidnapped, arriving in Parsisi last night with a dozen families of French-Israeli hostages to “make our voices heard.” “.

Yesterday the Israeli army said it had hit “600 targets” in 24 hours – weapons depots, rocket launchers and hiding places of Hamas, which Israel, the US and the European Union consider a “terrorist” organization. The army also announced it had killed “dozens of terrorists” and this morning said it had killed a suspect who had infiltrated Israeli territory.

Israeli strikes continued on parts of the Gaza Strip last night, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Israeli attack on Lebanon
The conflict has also raised tensions in the occupied West Bank, where about 120 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by gunfire from soldiers and Israeli settlers, according to the local health ministry.

The Israeli army also said today it had carried out airstrikes in Lebanon targeting the Shiite Hezbollah movement, an ally of Hamas, as the international community fears a regional conflagration.

In an interview with AFP yesterday, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati assured that his country is doing everything possible to avoid being drawn into the conflict. “I’m afraid that escalation could involve the entire region,” he said. In addition, yesterday the Israeli military announced that it had carried out strikes on targets in Syria in response to missile launches.

U.S. troops and their allies based in Iraq and Syria have been the target of 23 drone or missile attacks in the past two weeks. attacksa senior US defense official said on Monday.

Washington accuses Tehran of participating by proxy in these attacks, which have become more frequent since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas.

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