Air strikes in Gaza intensify as Israel prepares for invasion
Hamas fighters and Israeli forces engaged in limited clashes inside Gaza on Sunday as the Israeli military ramped up airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave ahead of what its spokesperson described as the “next stage” of its war on the militant group.
Hamas claimed its fighters had destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush near the Gazan city of Khan Younis, forcing Israeli troops to retreat without their vehicles. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed its forces had been operating inside Gaza during the incident, and said an IDF tank struck militants who had fired onb its troops.
The episode appeared to be one of the first skirmishes between the two sides on the ground inside the strip since war broke out after Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel which killed more than 1,400 people. The clashes came as the IDF prepares for a potential ground operation in Gaza, amassing huge numbers of troops at the border and pounding the densely populated enclave with near-constant airstrikes in the last two weeks.
Officials at several hospitals in Gaza said they were overwhelmed with casualties on Sunday, with one describing a “bloody day” and another hospital scaling back dialysis treatments amid electricity and fuel shortages. More than 4,600 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s retaliation for the Hamas attack began more than two weeks ago, the Gazan health ministry said.
Some parents in Gaza are now writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them, should they or the children be killed. A CNN journalist reporting from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital filmed a toddler and three children who had been killed, with their names written in Arabic on their calves. All four were seen lying on stretchers placed on the floor in an overfilled room. It was unclear whether their parents were also killed.
Videos obtained by CNN also showed the hospital receiving more than a dozen bodies wrapped in shrouds, while grieving family members try to identify them.
The US government has pressed Israel to delay its ground operations in Gaza to allow for the release of more Hamas hostages and aid into Gaza, according to two sources briefed on the discussions. The Friday release of two Americans held by Hamas signaled the possible freeing of more of the around 200 believed to be kidnapped by the militant group after its deadly attacks two week ago.
Israel has offered no timeline for the possible ground offensive on Gaza, but military officials have repeatedly told troops an incursion is imminent.
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The taking of hostages has not stopped Israel from responding to the murderous attack on Israeli non-combatants by Hamas. I suspect the invasion of Gaza by Israel will happen when its military believes the forces are in place and the ground has been prepared for such an attack. Israel has called up 300,000 reserve troops for the planned attack. The current casualties inside Gaza probably include those who refused or were not allowed to retreat into southern Gaza.
See, also:
Israel carries out limited raids in Gaza, Hamas launches drones
-Israel conducted limited overnight raids against Palestinian militants in Gaza and launched airstrikes on Monday on fighters who it said were assembling to repulse any wider Israeli invasion.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas said its fighters had hit back by engaging an armoured Israeli force in southern Gaza on Sunday, and launched two attack drones at military posts on Monday which Israel said were thwarted.
One Israeli soldier was killed during a raid on Sunday, the Israeli military said, but it did not acknowledge an assertion by Hamas that its fighters had destroyed Israeli military equipment during skirmishes.
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Describing incursions that went "deep" into Gaza, he said: "These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for the next stage in the war."
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Israel-Gaza Situation Report: Hamas Frogmen Attempt To Infiltrate Near Israeli Base
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“A force of frogmen affiliated with the Al-Qassam Brigades was able to infiltrate by sea and land on the beaches of 'Zikim' south of occupied Ashkelon, and armed clashes are now taking place with the occupation army in that area,” Hamas said on Telegram at around 8:30 p.m, local time (1:30 p.m. EST).
Israel said it thwarted the attack.
"Earlier today, IDF naval forces located a Hamas terrorist cell exiting a tunnel on the Gaza Strip coast and attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory via the sea, near Zikim," the IDF said on Telegram at about 11:55 p.m. local time (4:55 p.m. EST). "Israeli Navy, IAF and ground soldiers struck the terrorists and thwarted their infiltration attempt. IDF fighter jets and naval soldiers struck the tunnel and weapons warehouse used by the terrorists in the Gaza Strip."
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This was likely an attempted raid that unsuccessfully attempted to avoid the Israeli border guards.
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Gaza strikes: Hamas-run health ministry says 700 killed in 24 hours
More than 700 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
Israel's military said it struck 400 "terror targets" and killed several Hamas commanders over the same period.
It also declared that it would not reduce its attacks despite Hamas's release of another two hostages.
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Hamas launches massive rocket barrage as Israel delays invasion
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The Israeli military remains poised for a ground invasion of Gaza at any moment, though plans for such an operation have been delayed. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi told reporters that Israel is "ready to invade," but nevertheless explained the delay.
"At this stage, there are tactical and strategic factors which are allowing us more time to improve and to exploit every minute to be more ready," he said. "With every minute that passes for the other side, we are attacking the enemy more, killing his fighters, killing his commanders, destroying his infrastructure, and collecting more intelligence for the next moves."
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Released Hamas hostage says she was beaten and made to walk for hours through Gaza tunnels
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Israeli UN ambassador demands UN secretary-general resign after 'shocking' speech
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: Palestinians ‘subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation’
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"The shocking speech by the @UN Secretary-General at the Security Council meeting, while rockets are being fired at all of Israel, proved conclusively, beyond any doubt, that the Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region and that he views the massacre committed by Nazi Hamas terrorists in a distorted and immoral manner," Erdan posted on X, formerly Twitter.
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Pro-Hamas Dems Refuse to Listen to Republicans...So Maybe They'll Listen to Hillary Clinton
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"I don’t know how you run a country when you are under constant threat, terrorist tact, rockets coming at you. You have a right to defend yourself," Clinton reiterated before saying she still believed in the possibility of a two-state solution. Yet, when debating Sanders on the point of whether Israel's response to terrorists in the Gaza Strip has been "proportionate" (it has) Clinton acknowledged "of course there have to be precautions taken but even the most independent analyst will say the way that Hamas places its weapons, the way that it often has its fighters in civilian garb, it is terrible."
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Clinton continued by explaining how the plight of Gazans is the fault of its terrorist government, not Israel — another reality ignored by many pro-Hamas and increasingly anti-Semitic Democrats. "Let me say this, if Yasser Arafat had agreed with my husband at Camp David in the Late 1990s to the offer then-Prime Minister Barat put on the table, we would have had a Palestinian state for 15 years," she reminded.
"It would be great – remember, Israel left Gaza. They took out all the Israelis. They turned the keys over to the Palestinian people," Clinton noted of Israel's decision, the exact opposite of an "occupation" as Democrats now falsely allege.
"And what happened? Hamas took over Gaza. So, instead of having a thriving economy with the kind of opportunities that the children of the Palestinians deserve, we have a terrorist haven that is getting more and more rockets shipped in from Iran and elsewhere," Clinton accurately explained.
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Hamas’s attack and the left’s support aren’t about Israel; they’re about the Jews
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Muslims are obligated to obey Mohamed's dictates. One of those, which he came up with after the Jews rejected his attempt to control them, boils down to “Kill the Jews.”
This is not theory, it’s fact. Last week, the Palestinian Authority (which is supposed to be “moderate” compared to Hamas) had its Ministry of Religious Affairs post guidelines for upcoming sermons. The sermon selected? The one in which Mohamed mandates that all Jews must be slaughtered. The mandate came 2,400 years after Jews became residents of the land, and over 1,300 years before modern Israel’s creation....
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