Israeli troops are engaged in furious fighting with Hamas militants in the heart of the main southern city of Gaza, where the mastermind of the October 7 attacks is believed to be hiding. After breaching Hamas’ defenses at Khan Yunis, infantry, tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers forced already displaced civilians to flee again. Hamas claims the destruction of around twenty military vehicles in Khan Yunis and Beit Lahia, in the north of the territory, while the Israeli army claims to have carried out “incursions aimed at the heart of the city”, where it found and destroyed 30 tunnels. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself announced that Israeli forces surrounded the home of the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, but were unable to find him.
Sinwar, accused of being one of the masterminds of the October 7 attacks, was not seen in public during the war, and Israel identified him along with Mohammed Deif, leader of the Ezzedin al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, as the main military objective. But humanitarian organizations have warned that the spread of war south of the Strip will leave civilians who fled the north with nowhere to go. Much of northern Gaza has already been reduced to rubble by violent fighting and shelling, displacing 1.9 million people, according to United Nations data. Many civilians fled to Khan Yunis when Israel ordered them to evacuate the north. Now they are being pushed further south, to Rafah, on the border with Egypt. An attack in a residential neighborhood in Rafah left 17 people dead and dozens injured, the Hamas health ministry said.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had struck around 250 targets in Gaza in the past 24 hours and that troops had found a large cache of weapons near a clinic and a school in the north of the territory. Furthermore, according to the Israeli army, three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in Gaza on Wednesday. Israel finally approved a “minimal” increase in fuel supplies to Gaza, to avoid a “humanitarian collapse and outbreak of epidemics in the southern Gaza Strip,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Source: IL Tempo
John Cameron is a journalist at The Nation View specializing in world news and current events, particularly in international politics and diplomacy. With expertise in international relations, he covers a range of topics including conflicts, politics and economic trends.
