2023-10-28 05:01:00
The Israeli Army carried out a new small-scale operation this Friday in the Gaza Strip, where it attacked targets of the Islamist group Hamas with the support of fighter jets and drones, while raising the number of dead Gazans to 7,326, according to to local authorities.
The Israel Defense Forces reported that the dozens of Hamas targets they struck included anti-tank launchers, an operations center and the group’s checkpoints. “The troops left the area at the end of the activity,” indicated the text, which also stressed that there were no injuries in the Israeli ranks.
It was the second consecutive day of selective operations, defined by the Army as rehearsals prior to the ground incursion. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari announced that “following the series of attacks in recent days, our forces will expand their ground operations tonight.” And he added: “we are prepared for defense in all areas (land, sea and air).”
The Hamas militia called on the world to stop Israel’s bombing of Gaza. “We call on Arab and Muslim countries and the international community to assume their responsibilities and act to stop the crimes and massacres against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.
Sin internet
The Hamas group, the telephone companies operating in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Red Crescent, denounced that Israel cut off communications and most of the internet in the Palestinian territory. The Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel announced in a statement that the cut was due to the intensification of bombings in recent hours, which damaged international lines in Gaza. The International Internet Observatory Netblocks – in charge of reporting platform access restrictions – recorded “a collapse in connectivity, after a heavy bombing was reported.”
According to the latest report from the Gaza Ministry of Health, the death toll rose to 7,326 – of which 3,038 were minors, 1,726 women and 414 elderly – and 18,967 were injured.
Deaths and detainees in the West Bank
To this we must add that at least four people died and another 15 were injured in raids by the Israeli Army in the West Bank cities of Jenin and Qalqilia, according to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa explained that three of the fatalities were shot dead by Israeli forces in the city of Jenin and in its refugee camp, where twelve were also injured during an invasion by Israeli soldiers in the area, which They entered with two D9 armored excavators and 40 military vehicles. One of the Palestinians would have bled to death after Israeli troops did not allow the arrival of an ambulance that came to assist them, the Palestinian agency noted. The fourth deceased died from gunshots from Israeli soldiers in Qalqilia, who entered the area in the same way as in Jenin.
Wafa added that the Israeli Forces detained 19 people in the West Bank, in the villages of Nilín, Kafr Neama, Hizma, Nablus Jericho and Al Aguar. However, through a message on its social networks, the Israeli Army raised the number of those arrested to 36, all for allegedly being involved in terrorist activities.
Since the outbreak of the war, some 110 Palestinians have died in the occupied West Bank and some 1,900 have been injured in clashes with the Army and Israeli settlers, according to data from the ANP Ministry of Health. Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967 and since then has maintained a long regime of occupation and colonization over that territory.
Rockets against Tel Aviv
A long-range rocket fired from Gaza by Hamas hit a residential building in the southern area of Tel Aviv – Israel’s most populous city -, injuring at least three people, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. Israel emergency service. Another eight rockets were intercepted by the missile defense system, Israeli television reported.
Shortly after, another rocket fell south of Tel Aviv without any casualties: it hit an open area near a park and people had hidden in shelters when they heard the noise of the air raid sirens. Two other rockets hit the city of Ahsdod without causing casualties or material damage, local media added. The Al Qasem Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, took responsibility in a statement for the attack on Tel Aviv, and said it was “a response to the Zionist massacres against civilians” in Gaza.
More tension with Hezbollah
The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for three missile launches against military targets in northern Israel. Precisely in the early afternoon, the Shiite movement attacked the Al Sadah post with guided missiles, an action that left several Israeli troops deployed there injured and caused significant material damage to the facilities, according to a Hezbollah statement.
A quarter of an hour later, the formation carried out an attack of the same type against the Israeli post of Miskaf Am and another with unspecified weapons against the Abu Dajaj position, where it destroyed part of its technical equipment. Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for another missile launch against at least three different points in the Chebaa Farms and the Kfar Chouba Hills, Israeli-held territories that Lebanon claims as its own.
Since last October 8 – a day after the Hamas attack on Israel – the Lebanese movement and Israeli forces have been engaged in a continuous crossfire across the divide between the two countries. The escalation of violence has already left 46 casualties in the ranks of Hezbollah and more than 19,000 displaced people on the Lebanese side, and raised fears that this will become a second front in the war between Israel and the militias in the Gaza Strip.
The humanitarian situation
A first team of ten foreign Red Cross doctors entered through the Egyptian Rafah crossing towards the Gaza Strip, along with a convoy made up of another ten trucks loaded with water, food and medicine. “It is a small relief, but insufficient,” warned the regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Fabrizio Carboni. “It will help alleviate extreme pressure on Gaza’s medical staff, but safe and sustained access for humanitarian aid is necessary,” he stressed.
With this new entry of humanitarian aid, there are now 84 trucks, in six different batches, that have accessed the Palestinian territory through Egypt since Israel allowed the entry of assistance a week ago, although the shipments do not include fuel, a necessary resource for that hospitals, desalination plants and other essential services function properly.
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