Israel's ground forces in Gaza have aimed to locate and disable Hamas militants' vast tunnel network beneath the enclave, the next phase in an Israeli offensive that has killed thousands of Palestinians.
Since Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages in a 7 October cross-border attack, Israel has pounded Gaza from the air and used ground troops to divide the coastal enclave in two.Israel said its troops have advanced to the heart of the city while Hamas said its fighters have inflicted heavy losses on the Israeli forces.
Israeli tanks have faced heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using the tunnel network to launch ambushes, two sources with Hamas and the separate militant group Islamic Jihad said.Israelis have voiced fear that military operations could further endanger hostages, who are believed to be held in the tunnels.Hamas said it would not stop fighting while Gaza is under attack.
While Israel's military operation is focused on the northern half of Gaza, the south has also come under attack. In Gaza's Khan Younis, rescuers used their bare hands to try to free a girl buried to her waist in debris following an attack on a house that health officials said killed 11 people. In some of the first direct comments on the subject, Mr Netanyahu said Israel would seek to have security responsibility for Gaza"for an indefinite period" after the war.Mr Gallant, Israel's defence minister, said that after the war was finished, neither Israel nor Hamas would rule Gaza.
At Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital, Um Haitham Hejela, a woman sheltering with young children in an improvised tent fashioned from fabric, said they fled their home because of air strikes."There is no food, no water. When my son goes to pick up water, he queues for three or four hours in the line. They struck bakeries, we don't have bread," she added.
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