The Israeli army is conducting a “cleansing” of the Gaza Strip with the goal, as stated by the country’s political and military leadership, of identifying and eliminating Hamas leaders and destroying the network of tunnels created in the enclave.
On Tuesday morning (31/10) it was announced that the Hamas commander who organized the terrorist attacks in the Erez and Netiv areas of Hasar on October 7 was killed by Israeli fire. The IDF released videos and photographs showing its troops with tanks and excavators literally leveling the area.
The IDF has released new footage of its expanded ground operation in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/tOTdGGZC2t
— Intelligence FRONT (@Intelligencefnt) October 31, 2023
At the same time, as the Jerusalem Post reports, according to satellite images published today (10/31) by the New York Times, Israeli tanks are located approximately 5 km from Gaza city center.
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 Hanoun.
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
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.
“Hahal has expanded its land entry into the Gaza Strip, carrying it out in measured and very strong stages, acting methodically,” Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday, Monday, according to whom the “third phase” of the military operation has 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.”
https://rua.gr/news/european-news/vojna-v-izraile/58648-economist-chetyre-tseli-dlya-gazy-resheniya-kotorye-opredelyat-konechnyj-rezultat.html
This possibility was categorically excluded by Netanyahu. “Calls for a ceasefire are calls for capitulation to Hamas. This will not happen,” – he emphasized.
For Washington, Israel’s ally, the ceasefire is “not the best answer at the moment”said John Kirby, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, who rather spoke of “humanitarian pauses.”
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 of 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.
https://rua.gr/news/european-news/vojna-v-izraile/58530-osvobozhdennaya-izrailskaya-zalozhnitsa-sravnivaet-usloviya-prebyvaniya-v-plenu-s-adom-video.html
“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.
The Israeli Foreign Minister confirmed yesterday, Tuesday, the death of kidnapped German-Israeli woman Shani Luk. “Her skull was found,” the 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, Monday, the Israeli army said it had hit “600 targets” – weapons depots, rocket launchers and hiding places – of Hamas, which Israel, the United States and the European Union consider a “terrorist” organization, in 24 hours. 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 Oct. 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 yesterday, 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.
As of October 31, the death toll as a result of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since the last escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on October 7 reached 8,306 people.
How it conveys “Anadolu”, Gaza Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra announced this at a briefing at Al-Shifa Hospital. According to him, among the victims were 3,457 children and 2,136 women. 21,048 residents of the Palestinian exclave were injured.
The speaker of the department added that 25 hospitals were disabled, 25 ambulances were fired upon. Al-Qudra stressed that the Israeli military is deliberately attacking ambulances and impeding humanitarian activities in the region.
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