Fierce fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas in the south of the Gaza Strip
The militant Islamist Hamas declared in the online service Telegram that its fighters had attacked two troop transporters and a tank near Chan Junis. Chan Junis is currently the center of the fighting. According to eyewitnesses, dozens of Israeli tanks, troop carriers and bulldozers entered the south of the Palestinian territory on Monday. The Israeli army declared that it was taking "aggressive" measures against "Hamas and other terrorist organizations" in Khan Yunis.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported "several" deaths in an attack on the city of Gaza in the north of the Palestinian territory. For weeks, the Israeli attacks triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 had been concentrated in the north of the Gaza Strip. However, the south had also come under heavy fire at the weekend, including the area around Chan Junis.
The Israeli army had called on the civilian population to seek safe areas "if necessary". A "humanitarian zone within the Gaza Strip" had been set up specifically for this purpose. This is a small coastal area around the town of Al-Mawasi. The Israeli military is "well aware that space and access are limited", said army spokesman Jonathan Conricus.
The UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian Territories, Lynn Hastings, stated that the conditions for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip were "not in place". "Possibly an even more hellish scenario will unfold," Hastings warned. "There is nowhere safe in Gaza and nowhere left to go," she added.
Meanwhile, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the Israeli army had called on his organization to evacuate a warehouse containing aid supplies in the south of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army rejected this. "We would at least expect more accuracy from a UN representative," the Ministry of Defense stated on the online service X, formerly Twitter.
According to the Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel, all cell phone and telephone services in the Gaza Strip were down on Monday due to an interruption in the main lines from the Israeli side. The internet monitoring site Netblocks confirmed a "complete communications blackout" in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
According to the Israeli army on Tuesday, three more soldiers were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip. This brought the number of soldiers killed to 78.
According to two high-ranking Israeli officers, twice as many civilians were killed in the military operation against Hamas as Hamas fighters. When asked about information that 5,000 Hamas fighters had been killed, one of the officers stated that this figure was "more or less accurate".
Israeli soldiers moved into the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday morning. A Palestinian was killed in clashes at a crossing near Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
According to the Israeli army, it also attacked positions of the radical Islamic Hezbollah militia, which is allied with Hamas, in Lebanon and several towns in the neighboring country on Tuesday morning. It was a reaction to shots fired from Lebanon at northern Israel.
A seven-day ceasefire expired on Friday, which had been used to release a total of 105 hostages from the hands of Hamas. At the same time, 240 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails. According to Israeli sources, Hamas still holds 137 hostages, including the bodies of 15 Israelis.
The war between Israel and Hamas has now been going on for more than eight weeks. On 7 October, hundreds of fighters from Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the USA and the EU, invaded Israel and committed atrocities, mainly against civilians. According to Israeli reports, around 1,200 people were killed and around 240 people were taken hostage.
In response, Israel began massive attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip. According to Hamas, which cannot be independently verified, almost 15,900 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since then, most of them civilians.
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Source: www.stern.de
