The Israeli Defence Forces said on Wednesday that its troops are nearing Gaza City after breaking through Hamas’s first line of defence. Over 16 Israeli soldiers were dead this week in and near Gaza, which the IDF said was a "heavy price".
"With advance planning, precise intelligence and joint attacks [from the land, air and sea], our forces broke through Hamas’s front lines of defence in the north of the Gaza Strip," The Times of Israel quoted IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, the commander of the IDF’s 162nd Division, added that the Israeli forces had advanced deep into Gaza and were "at the gates of Gaza City." He added that the IDF, over the past five days, has destroyed much of Hamas’s capabilities, attacked its strategic facilities, all of its array of explosives, its underground tunnels and other facilities."
Cohen said that it was a long task and much work remained.
The IDF also claimed that it killed the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, Muhammad A’sar. According to the military, A’sar was responsible for all of Hamas’s anti-tank missile units throughout the Gaza Strip, commanded the units in routine times, and assisted their activity in emergencies. Under his command, numerous missile attacks had been carried out against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, added the IDF.
Jabalia camp deaths
Hamas has claimed that at least 195 Palestinians died in Israel's attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp. Over 120 people were missing under the rubble. At least 777 people were wounded, it said in a statement.
The U.N. Human Rights officials had called the attacks war crimes. "Given the high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction following Israeli air strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, we have serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes," the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote on social media site X.
Meanwhile, as Israel continues with its airstrikes and ground operations, hundreds of foreign citizens have crossed into Egypt on Wednesday under a deal among Israel, Egypt and Hamas. At least 320 foreign citizens on an initial list of 500, including passport holders from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the United Kingdom and the United States, were in the evacuation, reported Reuters.
Gaza border officials said the border crossing would reopen on Thursday so more foreigners could exit. The report also quoted a diplomatic source which said over 7,500 foreign passport holders would leave Gaza in about two weeks.
Israel said its strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday killed two Hamas military leaders in Jabalia, Gaza's biggest refugee camp. Israel said the group had command centres and other "terror infrastructure under, around and within civilian buildings, intentionally endangering Gazan civilians".
