As Israel’s ground offensive against terror group Hamas enters its eighteenth day, the IDF soldiers are fighting for control of central Gaza City, a terrorist stronghold riddled with booby traps and concealed tunnels manned by terrorists armed with rockets and mortars.
“Fighting in central Gaza City continues after the IDF conquered Gaza’s parliament on Monday,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Tuesday morning.
On Monday, the Israeli ground troops fought their way to the Gaza parliament building, from where Hamas ruled the territory through unelected and handpicked functionaries. Hamas, an offshoot of the global jihadist Muslim Brotherhood movement, imposed Islamic Sharia law after taking control of Gaza in 2006.
The Israeli military carried out night-time operations, eliminating terrorists and destroying weapons depots. “Over the past day, the IAF struck 200 terror targets, including terrorist operatives, weapon production sites, anti-tank missile launchers and operational command centers,” the IDF disclosed Monday morning. “Overnight, Israeli naval soldiers struck a military camp used by Hamas’ naval forces for training and weapons storage.”
The soldiers also discovered another Gaza mosque built to hide a terror tunnel network and a weapons cache. “During ground operations, IDF troops uncovered a terror tunnel shaft located in a mosque in the Gaza Strip,” the military said Monday.
The advancing Israeli tanks and infantry take heavy fire and shelling from terrorists hiding in tunnels and fortified positions, resulting in combat causalities. “The Israeli army has announced the deaths of two more soldiers in Gaza, raising the number of troops killed in the Palestinian territory to 46 since the war began, “the UK newspaper Telegraph reported Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military revealed that a 19-year-old female soldier, Noa Marciano, who had been held captive by Hamas terrorists since October 7, had been killed. The circumstances surrounding her death have not yet been disclosed.
The Jerusalem Post reported:
The IDF confirmed on Tuesday that Noa Marciano, 19, a soldier in the Border Defense Force, had been killed while being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.On Monday, Hamas published footage showing Marciano. The circumstances of her death remain unclear.
Despite being under terrorist fire, IDF soldiers delivered medical and other essential supplies to Shifa Hospital, which doubles as Hamas’s Gaza HQ and safe haven for its top terror brass.
“Following the IDF’s offer of humanitarian assistance to the director general of the Shifa Hospital, the IDF initiated a humanitarian effort to coordinate transfer of incubators from a hospital in Israel to the Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement Monday night. “The IDF remains committed to upholding its moral and professional responsibilities to distinguish between civilians and Hamas terrorists. The IDF is willing to work with any reliable mediating party to ensure the transfer of the incubators.”
While Israeli troops risk their lives providing humanitarian help to Gaza’s sick and needy, armed Hamas terror fighters are seen moving in and out of Gaza hospitals, using them as shelters and ammunition dumps.
On Monday, the Israeli military uncovered a Hamas base underneath a Gaza children’s hospital. The underground compound was being used to hold Israeli hostages who had been captured during the October 7 terrorist massacre. Read Mary Chastain’s post on the Hamas hostage dungeon beneath the children’s hospital here. More than 240 Israelis, among them women, children, and elderly, were taken as hostages into Gaza following the cross-border attack.
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