The Israeli ground forces have entered Hamas-controlled Gaza and were conducting ground operations using infantry, tanks and armored vehicles, the Israeli military and Palestinian sources confirm Saturday morning.
“IDF ground troops are expanding their efforts inside Gaza to dismantle the Hamas terrorist infrastructure, IDF Spokesman R.-Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday evening,” the Jerusalem Post reported Saturday. “Palestinian media reported that Israeli tanks assumed positions within the Gaza Strip late on Friday.”
Exactly three weeks after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,400 and took 229 Israelis captive in a sneak attack, the Islamist-controlled Gaza was facing the full might of the Israeli armed forces. “IDF strikes Hamas through air, land, and sea,” the Israeli newspaper added.
The widening of the operation comes after IDF carried of its first major ground raid on Thursday night. The troops, tanks and armored vehicles retreated after a brief strike — seen as a shaping operation before a full-fledged Gaza ground offensive.
The IDF reportedly disabled the internet and mobile connectivity across the terrorist-controlled territory, suggesting the start of a new phase in the military operation.
“Israel knocked out internet and communications in the Gaza Strip in stepped-up bombardment Friday night, … creating a near-blackout of information, as the military said it was “expanding” ground operations in the territory,” the Associated Press noted Saturday.
The IDF on Saturday renewed its call for Gaza residents to evacuate designated battle zones. Since past two weeks, the Israeli military has been dropping leaflets, sending text messages and using other means of communication to guide Gaza civilians to safety. Recent reports indicate that Hamas has been setting up roadblocks and shooting as civilians fleeing war zone.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military is keep up the pressure on the terrorists in Gaza, conducted night-time strikes at Hamas targets, hitting command and control centers, weapons depots and underground compounds. “Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck 150 underground targets in the northern Gaza Strip, including terror tunnels, underground combat spaces and additional underground infrastructure. Furthermore, several Hamas terrorists were killed,” the IDF said in a statement released Saturday morning.
Israeli security forces on Saturday eliminated the head of Hamas’ naval forces, days after terrorists carried out a failed maritime attempt to infiltrate thee Israeli coast near the southern town on Zikim. “Based on IDF and ISA intelligence, IDF fighter jets struck Ratib Abu Tzahiban, Commander of Hamas’ Naval Forces of the Gaza City Brigade,” the IDF disclosed in a separate statement. “Tzahiban planned and commanded the naval infiltration attempt carried out on October 24th, which was thwarted by Israeli naval forces.”
The Israeli military also admitted taking out the head of Hamas’s drone and aerial warfare. Hamas terrorists had used paragliders to breach the Israeli airspace to carry out the October 7 mass-murder. “The IDF announced on Saturday morning that the military, guided by precise intelligence information from the Air Force and the Shin Bet internal security service, killed the head of the air formation of the terrorist organization Hamas, Ezzam Abu Raffa, who was responsible for managing the UAV arrays, the drones, the aerial detection, the paragliders, and the air defense of the Hamas organization,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported.
There were also reports of Israeli airstrikes inside terrorist Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon amid repeated rocket attacks and attempted incursions. “A short while ago, the IDF thwarted a surface-to-air missile that was fired from Lebanon toward an IDF UAV. In response, the IDF is striking the origin of the missile’s fire,” the IDF said in a statement on Saturday morning.
Hamas, the terrorist group which hides behind civilians and recruits child soldiers, is now calling upon the Islamic countries to pressure Israel to stop the counter-terror operation three weeks after its terrorists murdered, mutilated and raped innocent Israeli civilians.
The i24NEWS reported Saturday:
“We call on the Arab and Muslim countries and the international community to take responsibility and act immediately to stop the crimes and series of massacres against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
The call comes days after PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority urged the Biden administration and the European countries to “pressure” Israel to halt its offensive as more than 200 Israeli hostages, among them women, elderly and toddlers, languish in Hamas captivity.
The state-owned France24 TV channel reported Thursday:
In an interview with FRANCE 24 on Day 20 of the Israel-Hamas conflict, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on the Biden administration “to pressure Israel to stop this war”. Nabil Abu Rudeineh also said that the current conflict was “an opportunity for us, for the Israelis, for the Europeans and the Americans” to reach a “two-state” solution in the Middle East.
As the world demands a ceasefire due to shortages of food and fuel, Hamas is sitting on a huge stockpile it keeps from civilians, the NY Times reports:
As supplies of virtually every basic human necessity dwindle in Gaza, one group in the besieged enclave remains well-stocked: Hamas….Hamas has hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel for vehicles and rockets; caches of ammunition, explosives and materials to make more; and stockpiles of food, water and medicine, the officials said. A senior Lebanese official said Hamas, which is estimated to number between 35,000 and 40,000, had enough stocked away to keep fighting for three to four months without resupply.
At a press conference on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally announced the beginning of the ground offensive. The aim of the military operation was the “destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities; and returning the hostages home,” he declared.
The Times of Israel reported:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the second stage of the war against Hamas has begun with the entrance of more ground forces into Gaza last night.At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu says Israel’s war aims are clear — “destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities; and returning the hostages home.”Netanyahu says the decision to begin the ground incursion was made unanimously, both by the war cabinet and the security cabinet.“Our commanders and soldiers fighting in enemy territory know that the nation and the national leadership stand behind them,” he adds.Netanyahu says the troops that he has met in the field are determined to make Hamas pay for its actions on October 7.“They are determined to eradicate this evil from the world, for our existence and, I add, for all of humanity,” he says.The premier quotes the biblical injunction to remember what the Amalekites did to the Israelites. “We remember, and we are fighting.”Netanyahu says the soldiers are part of a legacy of Jewish warriors that goes back 3,000 years. He stresses that they have one goal: “To defeat the murderous enemy, and to ensure our existence in our land.”
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