Israeli troops surround Gaza City, clashes with Hezbollah in the North

2023-11-03 13:42:20

Time.news – After 27 days of war against Hamas, Israel managed to surround Gaza City. The army itself announced it in the hours in which the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, returns to Tel Aviv, pto ask Netanyahu’s government for humanitarian pauses to allow further aid to enter the Strip and create a slightly more favorable climate for the release of the hostages.

For Blinken, it is his second tour in the Middle East since the beginning of the war triggered by the bloody attack by Hamas on 7 October, an activism that confirms the general fear that the conflict could spread. A clear indication of the next developments will come today from the long-awaited speech of powerful leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah: he will speak in the afternoon for the first time since the beginning of the conflict and will make it clear whether his group, allied with Palestinian Hamas and supported by Iran, intends to enter the conflict.

Blinken – who has already landed in Tel Aviv – saw the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and after the meeting, he met with members of the Israeli war cabinet, the president Isaac Herzog and the leader of the opposition Yair Lapid. Starting from Washington, she assured that she will ask Israel to take “concrete measures” to minimize the danger to civilians in Gaza and prevent an escalation of the conflict in the region.

Returned to Israel for meetings with @IsraeliPM Netanyahu, President @Isaac_Herzogand other government leaders. Will discuss Israel’s right to defend itself and our work to get humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/2SHzgEhT4w

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) November 3, 2023

Gaza City surrounded

Meanwhile, after another night of violence in the West Bank (according to medical sources, another 7 Palestinians killed, over 140 since the start of the conflict) the army made it known that it had entered “another significant phase of the war”: Israeli troops are gathered outside Gaza City; now isolated from the rest of the Strip; covered by the air force and protected by the Navy, soldiers and armored columns also penetrated the city, attacking – according to the military – outposts, the headquarters and other Hamas infrastructure.

Conquering the city, the largest in the Strip and a Hamas stronghold, will be a difficult task for the Israeli army: the soldiers will have to engage in an insidious urban guerrilla war in an environment likely dotted with mines and booby traps; and they will also have to venture into the complicated labyrinth of tunnels, dug over the years by Hamas to hide the militiamen and prepare ambushes.

According to Tsahal, 130 “Hamas terrorists” died yesterday afternoon in the clashes; and Israeli soldiers have also died, another 4, 23 in total since the start of the war.
And while Hamas continues to update the Palestinian death toll in Gazaover 9 thousand since the beginning of the conflict, the drama of the hostages remains unresolved: to help identify them the US also flew drones over the Strip.

Netanyahu denies the army: “No fuel in Gaza”

After Chief of Staff Halevi announced that Israel would allow fuel into Gaza if hospitals run out, the Prime Minister’s Office issues a statement stressing that Benjamin Netanyahu did not approve any such transfer. According to US estimates, Hamas holds approximately 40% of the 500,000 liters of fuel in Gaza.

The Israeli army “is already beyond the gates of Gaza City” and is “making progress”, Netanyahu said again speaking to the soldiers of the special units, “we too have painful losses, but I want one thing to be clear: nothing will stop.”

Clashes with Hezbollah continue

Meanwhile, the second front in the north, on the border with Lebanon, remains open. Hezbollah said it simultaneously attacked 19 positions in Israel along the border. Sirens sounded in northern Israel and a rocket exploded in the town of Kiryat Shmona, causing a fire.

© Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP

Israeli soldiers engaged in the operation in Gaza

In response to the attacks on northern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said it had carried out large-scale airstrikes on Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon. The IDF says that among the targets hit so far by fighter jets, tanks and artillery are military headquarters, rocket launch sites, weapons storage sites, military compounds and other infrastructure belonging to the terrorist group.

The Imam Hussein Brigadelinked to Iran, was transferred from Syria, where it was originally deployed, to southern Lebanon to support Hezbollah, an Israeli military spokesman said, Avichay Adraee. “After a series of failures suffered by Hezbollah against Israel in recent weeks, the Iranian Imam Hussein Brigade, led by a commander known as Zulfiqar, has arrived in southern Lebanon,” he reported on they clashed with Israeli soldiers along the border.

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