Israeli army advances in southern Gaza

Situation in the Middle East - Israeli army advances in southern Gaza

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 Chan Junis area. The "Times of Israel" quoted Palestinian reports during the night according to which there were intensive attacks by the Israeli armed forces in the largest city in the southern part of the sealed-off coastal area.

Earlier, dozens of Israeli tanks had advanced into southern Gaza and had been spotted near Chan Junis. Eyewitnesses had also seen armored personnel carriers and bulldozers.

Growing criticism of Israel's actions

Following the expansion of the Israeli military operation against the Islamist Hamas 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 in the south speak of "horror" and "unbearable suffering of the civilian population". Nobody feels safe when bombs are falling every ten minutes, said James Elder, spokesman for the UN children's charity Unicef, to the BBC.

According to the aid organization Doctors Without Borders, two hospitals in the south can barely cope with the influx of patients. The Al-Aksa Hospital and the Nasser Hospital are particularly affected, the organization announced yesterday. Israel accuses Hamas of carrying out attacks from residential areas and hospitals and abusing civilians as human shields.

Army spokesman: No total network failure in Gaza

Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokesman denied a renewed total failure of telecommunications services in the coastal strip. He himself had seen live broadcasts by Palestinian propaganda people on TikTok, army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told the US broadcaster CNN. The networks may not be perfect, but there was 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 have neither electricity nor internet access to view the map. Many also do not know how to use it. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had fled there from the north of the territory on Israel's orders are crowded into southern Gaza.

According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, almost 15,900 people have been killed in Israel's attacks throughout the coastal area. The casualty figures cannot currently be independently verified, but the United Nations and other observers point out that the authority's figures have proved to be generally credible in the past.

Israel has secret information on hostages

Meanwhile, the army spokesman said that they had intelligence information on the whereabouts of the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip. When asked whether the military had intelligence information on where the hostages might be, Conricus said: "Yes, we do". He could not give any further details. Israel assumes that 137 hostages are still being held.

According to Defense Minister Joav Galant, 15 women and two children are among them. Thousands of terrorists from Hamas and other groups attacked Israel on October 7 and caused a massacre. Around 1200 people were murdered, the majority of them civilians. Around 240 people were deported to the Gaza Strip that day. Last week, during a ceasefire, 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prison inmates.

Hamas has stated that it will continue negotiations on the release of further hostages only after the end of the war. They want to get all the hostages back, said Israeli army spokesman Conricus. If this was not possible through negotiations, other means would be used.

Report: Israel capable of flooding the tunnels

According to a media report, Israel has assembled a system of large pumps with which it could flood Hamas' extensive network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip with seawater. As the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials, it is not known whether Israel's government intends 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 out of their underground hideout. On the other hand, this would threaten the Gaza Strip's water supply, it was said. According to Israel's army, it has found more than 800 tunnel shafts since the beginning of the war. Around 500 of these have already been destroyed, it said on Sunday. Many kilometers of underground tunnel routes have been destroyed. The information could not initially be independently verified.

Fighting on Israel's border with Lebanon

Meanwhile, Israel's military has attacked positions of the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon in response to shelling from there. According to the Israeli army, fighter jets had hit rocket positions of the Iranian-backed Shiite militia shortly beforehand.

"Terrorist infrastructure and a military compound" had also come under fire. They had responded to shelling from Lebanon on targets in Israel the previous day. 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 casualties on both sides.

What is important today

Israel continues to advance against the Islamist Hamas in the south of the Gaza Strip with ground troops. Aid organizations describe the situation for the civilian population there as sheer horror.