( CBC )
Israel said on Tuesday its forces attacked Hamas gunmen inside the Islamists' vast tunnel network beneath Gaza, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed calls for a halt to fighting to ease the Palestinian enclave's humanitarian crisis.
The tunnels are a key objective for Israel as it expands ground operations inside Gaza to wipe out the ruling Hamas movement following its gun rampage three weeks ago that Israeli authorities say killed over 1,400 people, including several Canadians.
"Over the last day, combined IDF combat forces struck approximately 300 targets, including anti-tank missile and rocket launch posts below shafts, as well as military compounds inside underground tunnels belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization," the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement.
Militants responded with anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire, it added.
"The soldiers killed terrorists and directed air forces to real-time strikes on targets and terror infrastructure," the IDF said.
Israeli armed forces also bombed Gaza overnight in air, sea and ground attacks, targeting northwestern areas of the Palestinian enclave where Israeli troops were operating on the ground, witnesses said on Tuesday.
Witnesses said Israeli forces targeted Gaza's main north-south road on Monday and attacked Gaza City from two directions. Israel said its troops freed a soldier from Hamas captivity.
Hamas, an armed Islamist group that governs Gaza, has so far released four civilians from the 239 hostages Israel says were captured on Oct. 7. Many of the hostages are believed to held in the Hamas tunnel network.
Pipeline issue adds to clean water concerns
The al-Qassam brigades, Hamas's armed wing, said militants clashed early on Tuesday with Israeli forces "invading the southern Gaza axis, [including] with machine guns, and targeted four vehicles with al-Yassin 105 missiles," referring to locally produced anti-tank missiles.
The militants also targeted two Israeli tanks and bulldozers in northwest Gaza with the missiles, al-Qassam said.
Are you in the Middle East and affected by the war between Israel and Hamas? We want to hear about your experience. Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.
Reuters was not able to confirm the reports of fighting.
Gaza health authorities say that 8,525 people have been killed this month in Israeli attacks. That figure includes a disputed toll from an explosion at a Gaza hospital two weeks ago. The health ministry says it tallies figures from reports from hospital directors, though it doesn't distinguish between civilian deaths and those of Hamas militants.
UN officials say more than 1.4 million of Gaza's civilian population of about 2.3 million have been made homeless.
The mounting death toll has drawn calls from the U.S., Israel's top ally, other countries and the UN for a pause in fighting to allow more humanitarian aid to reach the enclave.
Netanyahu said late on Monday that Israel would not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas in Gaza and would press ahead with its plans to wipe out the group.
Military specialists said Israeli forces are moving slowly in their ground offensive in part to keep open the possibility that Hamas militants will negotiate the release of the hostages.
The relative caution with which Israeli troops have taken and secured slices of territory in the first days of sustained ground operations in Gaza stands in contrast to the past three weeks of unrelenting airstrikes on the Mediterranean enclave, as well as to Israel's previous land offensives there.
The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said that water supply through a pipeline from Israel to southern Gaza was cut off on Monday "for unknown reasons," and that an announced repair of another pipeline to central Gaza did not take place.
"At the time of writing, no water is provided to Gaza from Israel," OCHA said on its website.
Significantly fewer humanitarian aid trucks have reached the besieged enclave than are required, UN officials said, and civil order has broken down with people storming UN warehouses in search of food.
'Disaster on top of disaster'
That has put four UN aid distribution centres and a storage facility out of action, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.
The agency, which hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza rely on for basic services even in non-war times, says 64 of its staff have been killed since the start of the war, including a man killed alongside his wife and eight children in a strike late Monday.
"This is the highest number ever of UN aid workers killed in any conflict around the world in such a short time," spokesperson Juliette Touma told The Associated Press. "UNRWA will never be the same without these colleagues."
"It's a disaster on top of a disaster. Health needs are soaring and our ability to meet those needs is rapidly declining," World Health Organization regional emergencies chief Rick Brennan said, reiterating international calls for a ceasefire to enable a larger humanitarian operation.
Aid trucks have been trickling into Gaza from Egypt over the past week via Rafah, the main crossing that does not border Israel. It has become the main point of aid delivery since Israel imposed a "total siege" of Gaza after Oct. 7.
OCHA said 26 trucks entered the Rafah crossing on Monday.
The conflict has led to demonstrations worldwide in support of the Palestinians, and antisemitic and Islamophobic harassment.
The White House said it was taking action to fight "an alarming uptick" in antisemitic incidents at schools and colleges, including working to ensure campus law enforcement was engaged with state and local law enforcement.
Comments