Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli forces had entered the outskirts of Gaza City, stressing that nothing would stop them, on the 27th day of the war, which also saw fierce clashes and violent resistance from the “Qassam Brigades” , which clashed with the Israeli army at close range, causing deaths and injuries among its ranks.
Later on Thursday evening, the Israeli army announced the encirclement of Gaza City, six days after it began its ground incursion. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces “have completed the encirclement of Gaza City.”
Netanyahu said, while among Israeli soldiers, and later at a news conference with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, “Our forces have penetrated the outskirts of Gaza City. We are making progress and have achieved very impressive successes.” Nothing will stop us, we will move forward, we will advance and we will win.” Netanyahu’s announcement confirms the Israeli army’s intention to enter the center of the Gaza Strip, after surrounding it yesterday from all axes, in light of the violent resistance of the Palestinian factions, which led to the killing of several Israeli soldiers .
Encirclement of Gaza City
Israeli forces advanced along several axes from the northern Gaza Strip, reaching the outskirts of Gaza City on Thursday. Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy said that army fighters have operated in Gaza City in recent days surrounding it from all directions, recognizing that his forces are waging war with a cruel enemy and paying a painful and heavy price . it was also confirmed by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, who said that “the images” coming from the battle are painful, and our tears fall when we see the soldiers of the Givati Brigade fall.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said his forces reached deep into the Gaza Strip, but only after engaging in prolonged, violent clashes and being exposed to anti-tank missiles, explosive devices and hand grenades. The Israeli army is trying to enter Gaza City; The largest governorate in the Gaza Strip is Al-Shifa hospital, which Israel says is the command center of Al-Qassam. Al-Shifa is located about 3 kilometers from the position of the Israeli forces, but proceeding towards it seems complicated and difficult.
Long task
General Itzik Cohen, commander of the Israeli army’s 162nd division, said the mission is still long and there is still a lot of work. Israel is preparing for more intense and violent battles as it reaches the stronger defensive lines of Al-Qassam. The Israeli army in Gaza lost 20 officers and soldiers in two days, including 11 soldiers aboard a Tiger armored vehicle, two more soldiers when their tank ran over an explosive device, another to shelling mortar and two others in direct clashes.
On Thursday morning the Israeli army announced the killing of reserve lieutenant Yuval Zilber (25 years old), company commander from Ramat Gan, killed in clashes with Hamas gunmen, and the killing of a battalion commander. and 4 soldiers were seriously injured in the ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip. The occupation army said that the commander of the 53rd battalion of the 188th army brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Salman Habka (33 years old) from Jat village, was killed in northern Gaza and 4 soldiers were seriously injured during the fighting. Habka is the highest-ranking officer killed in the Israeli army since the ground clash began.
Clashes from point zero
Despite the Israeli advance towards Gaza City, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced on Thursday that more soldiers were killed in ambushes, destroyed tanks and armored vehicles and engaged in ground zero fighting, before shelling Tel Aviv with a heavy barrage of missiles. and also northern Israel on the Lebanese side. Al-Qassam pledged to defeat the Israeli army.
As the fighting intensified, Israel continued to bomb populated areas of the Gaza Strip, killing more and more Palestinians, focusing on refugee camps near Gaza City. The Israeli army said it struck 12,000 Hamas targets in Gaza, but that more women and children were killed there.
The Gaza government press office said: “The occupation claims to bomb 12,000 military targets within the Gaza Strip, and reality shows that its targets are residential neighbourhoods, homes of citizens, women and children and gatherings of citizens in front of bakeries, hospitals and churches”. The office added: “The amount of explosives dropped on the Gaza Strip exceeds 25,000 tons, or approximately 70 tons per square kilometer.”
The press office also accused “the Israeli occupation of focusing on bombing the densest and most populated refugee camps, in recent days and hours, targeting residential squares in Jabalia, Al-Shati, Al-Burij and Al -Maghazi”. He added: “These raids caused the widespread destruction of dozens of residential homes, and dozens of martyrs and hundreds of injuries, in a new confirmation of the occupier’s desire to increase the human cost of the victims of this brutal aggression.”
Bureij camp bombed
On Thursday, Israel bombed the Bureij camp and razed a residential neighborhood to the ground, after shelling Jabalia and the beach, and also bombed schools hosting displaced people. The Ministry of Health said: “The toll of martyrs and wounded among our people following the continued aggression against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank has risen to 9,159 martyrs and more than 24,000 wounded.”
Politically, Hamas has rejected American interference in the future of the Gaza Strip, and Hamas leader Osama Hamdan has condemned White House statements regarding the future of Gaza, accusing the United States of seeking to form a Palestinian political leadership according to the its standards. He underlined that “the choice of leadership of the Palestinian people is a purely Palestinian issue that takes place through elections”.
Hamas said that the White House’s statements regarding working on an international regional consensus to manage the Gaza Strip after the end of the aggression on Gaza are brazen and unacceptable, since it is not the free Palestinian people on whom guardianship is being imposed. He added, in a statement on Thursday, that “attempts at overt intervention by the United States to impose a new reality that suits them and the scale of the Zionist occupation in the Gaza Strip are completely rejected and will be addressed by our Palestinians. people with all their strength. The movement said in a statement: “The decision to settle the Palestinian situation is a decision of the people, and only they are able to determine their destiny, their future and their interests.”