Ground Battles Rage In Gaza As Israel Escalates Bombing

Battles raged in Gaza on Saturday as Israel’s army said it expanded ground operations after intensifying its bombardment of the Palestinian territory three weeks after the deadliest attack in the country’s history. The United Nations warned of a looming “unprecedented avalanche of human suffering” inside the Gaza Strip, after weeks of relentless Israeli bombing, while the General Assembly called for an “immediate humanitarian truce”. “We are confronting an Israeli ground incursion in Beit Hanoun (in the northern Gaza Strip) and east Bureij (in the centre) and violent engagements are taking place on the ground,” Hamas’s armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said. Israeli military spokesman Major Nir Dinar told AFP: “Our troops are operating inside Gaza as they did yesterday.” Israel launched its bombardment of Gaza after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking nearly 230 others hostage, according to Israeli officials. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Friday that Israeli strikes had now killed 7,326 people, more than 3,000 of them children. With tens of thousands of troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of an expected full-blown invasion, Israeli forces had also made limited ground incursions on Wednesday and Thursday nights. “The ground forces are extending the ground operations tonight,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said late Friday. The Israeli army said it had increased its strikes “in a very significant way”, while the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said on Telegram it responded with “salvos of rockets”. In overnight raids, Israeli fighter jets hit 150 “terror tunnels, underground combat spaces and additional underground infrastructure” and “several Hamas terrorists were killed”, the army said on Saturday morning.

Israeli Airstrikes Displace About 264,000 Palestinians In Gaza – UN

Israeli airstrikes against Hamas militants have displaced 264,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the UN’s humanitarian relief agency has said. They are sheltering in school buildings, with relatives or neighbours, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, launched a large-scale attack against Israel on Saturday, killing at least 1,200 people and kidnapping around 100 others. Israel responded with ongoing airstrikes on the densely packed coastal enclave. At least 900 people have died in Gaza, health officials there say. OCHA reported Israeli airstrikes on several residential buildings in Gaza. OCHA, citing the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza, said more than 1,500 housing units were destroyed or severely damaged. In addition, five facilities that provided water and sanitation for half a million people were damaged. More than two million people live in the Palestinian territory.

Israel Bombs More Than 200 Targets In Gaza Strip Overnight

*123 Israeli soldiers killed large-scale Hamas attack Israeli jets are continuing to pound the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the unprecedented incursion of Hamas fighters into Israel at the weekend. The Israeli military said more than 200 targets were struck overnight, including a weapons depot used by Hamas and facilities belonging to Islamic Jihad, a separate Palestinian Islamist group. Hundreds of Palestinian attackers crossed the border into Israel on Saturday. Around 900 people were killed in the ensuing massacre. In Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel, more than 100 bodies were found on Monday after the army regained control of the area. Hamas militants took at least 150 people captive and brought them back to Gaza, including women, children, and the elderly, according to an assessment by Israel. Hamas has threatened to execute one hostage for every unannounced Israeli strike on civilians in Gaza. The bodies of 1,500 militants have been found in Israeli territory so far, according to the Israeli army. Massive Israeli counter-attacks have killed at least 687 people and injured more than 3,800 in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Meanwhile, at least 123 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the large-scale attack by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Tuesday. Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari also said that so far 50 families had been personally informed that their loved ones were being held hostage in the Palestinian coastal enclave. Israel believed at least 100 people were abducted, including soldiers, in Saturday’s multi-pronged attack that blindsided the Jewish state.