Israel’s army has already penetrated deeply with ground operations

2023-10-30 17:38:24

The Israeli military says it is making progress as planned in its operation in the Gaza Strip. The troops are moving step by step according to plan, said military spokesman Daniel Hagari in a press briefing on Monday morning. The armed forces killed dozens of Palestinian fighters overnight. Some of them barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels and tried to attack the Israeli soldiers.

A fighter plane guided by ground troops bombed a building belonging to the Islamist Hamas where more than 20 of the terrorists were staying. In the past few days, more than 600 terrorist targets have been attacked, including weapons depots, dozens of anti-tank missile launch sites and Hamas hideouts and bases, Hagari said.

The Israeli army spokesman did not want to comment on the exact location of the ground troops. The American television station CNN, however, announced on Monday that Israel’s military had now advanced about three kilometers into the Gaza Strip, based on the analysis of its own aerial photographs. Israeli media on Monday quoted anonymous military sources as saying that the Israeli army had penetrated deeper into Palestinian territory “than at any time since the beginning of the war.” Israel has deployed “massive firepower” in the Gaza Strip “on a scale not seen since the Yom Kippur War,” it said.

Israel also continued to attack targets in the occupied West Bank. According to Palestinian information, four Palestinians were killed and nine others injured in a military operation in Jenin on Monday night. Israeli army spokesman Hagari said on Monday that several “armed terrorists” were killed in an airstrike in Jenin after they attacked Israeli military forces. In total, Hagari said, more than 700 Hamas members have been arrested in the West Bank since the war began. According to Palestinian information, 120 Palestinians have also been killed there since October 7th.

The situation on the Lebanese border continues to escalate

As the fighting in the Gaza Strip has intensified, the confrontation on the Israeli-Lebanese border has also escalated further. There, the Iran-sponsored Shiite militia Hizbullah engages in daily battles with the Israeli military, but these are limited to a narrow strip along the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon. The severity of these attacks generally depended on the intensity of the fighting in Gaza. Hezbollah fired only at military targets with guided anti-tank missiles, indicating that it wanted to avoid hitting civilians. Israel responded promptly with heavy artillery fire and occasional drone strikes.

Over the weekend, both the combat zone and the type of weapons used were expanded. Rockets fired from Lebanese soil (albeit apparently by Palestinian extremists) hit a civilian settlement in Israel. Hezbollah also reported that it shot down an Israeli drone with a surface-to-air missile. Israeli retaliatory strikes, including from the air, also hit targets deeper into Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah has suffered comparatively heavy losses in the fighting over the past three weeks, with dozens of its fighters killed. A speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been announced for this Friday, which will, as usual, be broadcast from an unknown location. His speech could provide clues about the attitude of the isolated Hezbollah leadership. So far, their top cadre has only issued the slogan not to stand idly by and watch the destruction of Hamas.

Published/Updated: Recommendations: 298 Christian Meier, Tel Aviv Published/Updated: Recommendations: 50 Quynh Tran, Haifa Published/Updated: Recommendations: 38

So far, the prevailing view among diplomats, experts and Lebanese intelligence officials is that neither Hezbollah nor Israel want a new, major war in Lebanon. However, the risk of an unwanted escalation remains high. According to its own statements, Israel also fired on targets in Syria in response to rocket attacks on Monday night. The Israeli military said a fighter jet hit “military infrastructure” on Syrian soil.