Many Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza left the city on Tuesday after Israeli Defence Forces said it would encircle the main city in the territory, stepping up its ante against the Hamas following the October 7 suprise attacks. Palestinians from the beseiged enclave, carrying their belongings on a donkey and waving white flags, fled past the Israeli tanks waiting to storm into Gaza city in what the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said will give Israel “indefinite” control over the coastal strip, reported Guardian.
The Israeli Defence Forces, in an Arabic-language message, said that they would allow people to leave from 10 am to 2 pm local time and released a video of dozens of people along the main road.
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Taking to social media, one of the residents Adam Fayez Zeyara, said the walk on Tuesday was the most dangerous of his life. “We saw the tanks from point blank. We saw decomposed body parts. We saw death.
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The IDF, which has encircled Gaza City, the stronghold of Hamas, aimed on Wednesday to locate and disable the vast tunnel network of the Palestinian militant group beneath the enclave, as per a Reuters report.
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IDF chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Israel’s combat engineering corps used explosive devices to destroy a tunnel network built by Hamas that stretches for hundreds of kilometres (miles) beneath Gaza.
- Israel had “one target” — Hamas terrorists in Gaza, their infrastructure, their commanders, bunkers, communications rooms,” said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
- Meanwhile, Israelis have expressed their fear that the military operations could further endanger the hostages taken by Hamas, who are believed to be held inside those tunnels. Though, Israel said it would not agree to a ceasefire until the hostages are released while Hamas said it won’t stop fighting while Gaza is under attack.
- “I challenge (Israel) if it has been able, to this moment, to record any military achievement on the ground other than killing civilians,” senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera television.
- The Israeli air strikes have killed in Gaza 10,328 Palestinians since the October 7 war while 26,000 have been injured and around 2,800 stuck under rubble, according to the State of Palestine while over 1,50,000 have been internally displaced.
- Around 40,000 housing units have been completely destroyed while 2,20,000 have been damaged, it said, adding that 21 hospitals and 32 ambulances were also damaged in the airstrikes.
