Israel’s army intensifies its attacks in southern Gaza. The situation is becoming increasingly unbearable for the civilian population. The overview.
Israel’s army continues to advance in the south of the Gaza Strip and, according to a media report, has fired on targets in the Khan Yunis area. The Times of Israel cited Palestinian reports that night that there were intense attacks by Israeli forces in the largest city in the southern part of the sealed-off coastal area.
Dozens of Israeli tanks had previously advanced into southern Gaza and were spotted near Khan Yunis. Eyewitnesses also saw armored personnel carriers and bulldozers, it said.
Growing criticism of Israel’s actions
After the Israeli military operation against the Islamist Hamas was expanded to the south of the sealed-off coastal area, criticism of the army’s actions is growing in view of the suffering of the civilian population. Aid organizations speak of “horror” and “unbearable suffering of the civilian population” in the south. No one would feel safe if bombs were falling every ten minutes, said James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s fund Unicef, to the BBC.
According to the aid organization Doctors Without Borders, two hospitals in the south can no longer cope with the influx of patients. The organization announced yesterday that Al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Hospital were particularly affected. Israel accuses Hamas of carrying out attacks from residential areas and hospitals and using civilians as human shields.
Army spokesman: No total network failure in Gaza
An Israeli army spokesman, meanwhile, denied another total failure of telecommunications services in the coastal strip. Army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told US broadcaster CNN that he himself had seen live broadcasts by Palestinian propaganda people on TikTok. The networks may not be perfect, but there is no blackout in Gaza previously reported by the Palestinian company Paltel, the army spokesman said.
The Israeli army has activated an evacuation map that divides the Gaza Strip into hundreds of small zones to inform civilians about combat zones. However, critics complain that many people do not have electricity or internet to view the map. Many people don’t know how to deal with it either. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled there from the north of the area on Israel’s instructions are crowding south of Gaza.
Israel’s attacks have now killed nearly 15,900 people across the coastal area, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. The number of victims cannot currently be independently verified, but the United Nations and other observers point out that the authority’s figures have proven to be overall credible in the past.
Israel has secret information about hostages
Meanwhile, the army spokesman said that they had intelligence information about the whereabouts of the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip. Asked whether the military had intelligence on where the hostages might be, Conricus said: “Yes, we do.” He could not provide any further information. Israel believes that 137 hostages are still being held.
According to Defense Minister Joav Galant, among them are 15 women and two children. Thousands of terrorists from Hamas and other groups attacked Israel on October 7th and carried out a massacre. Around 1,200 people were murdered, the majority of them civilians. Around 240 people were kidnapped into the Gaza Strip that day. Last week, during a ceasefire, 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prison inmates.
Hamas says it does not want to continue negotiations about the release of more hostages until the end of the war. Israeli army spokesman Conricus said they wanted to get all the hostages back. If this is not possible through negotiations, other means will be used.
Report: Israel capable of flooding tunnels
Israel has assembled a system of large pumps that could flood Hamas’ extensive network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip with seawater, according to a media report. As the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials, it is not known whether Israel’s government plans to use this tactic. Israel has neither made a final decision nor ruled out such a plan, it said.
With such a tactic, Israel would be able to destroy the tunnels and drive the terrorists from their underground hideout. On the other hand, it would threaten the Gaza Strip’s water supply, it said. Israel’s army says it has found more than 800 tunnel shafts since the start of the war. Around 500 of them had already been destroyed, it was said on Sunday. Many kilometers of underground tunnel routes were destroyed. The information could not initially be independently verified.
Fighting on Israel’s border with Lebanon
Meanwhile, Israel’s military has attacked Hezbollah militia positions there in response to shelling from Lebanon. The Israeli army said warplanes had recently hit rocket positions belonging to the Iranian-backed Shiite militia.
“Terrorist infrastructure and a military site” were also targeted. They responded to shelling from Lebanon on targets in Israel the day before. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, there have been repeated confrontations between Israel’s army and militant groups such as Hezbollah in the border region with Lebanon. There have already been deaths on both sides.
What is important today
Israel is continuing to advance against the Islamist Hamas with ground troops in the south of the Gaza Strip. Aid organizations describe the situation for the civilian population there as sheer horror.