World News | Updates | Israel Predicts a Difficult Ground Offensive in Gaza to Dismantle Hamas Tunnels
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Israeli forces conducted another ground raid in Gaza in advance of an expected invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory that the country's defense minister said would come soon.
Jerusalem, Oct 27 (AP) Israeli forces conducted another ground raid in Gaza in advance of an expected invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory that the country's defense minister said would come soon.
US warplanes, meanwhile, struck targets in eastern Syria after attacks on US forces by Iran-backed fighters, adding to regional tensions fuelled by the 3-week-old Gaza war.
Also Read | Israel-Hamas War: Vast Network of Hamas Tunnels Will Make Ground Offensive Long and Difficult, Says Israel.
The Palestinian death toll passed 7,300 as Israel launched waves of airstrikes in response to the bloody Hamas rampage in southern Israel on October 7.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list, including names and ID numbers on Thursday. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids since October 7.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack.
In addition, 229 people — including foreigners, children and older adults — were taken by Hamas during the incursion and remain in captivity in Gaza. Four hostages were released earlier.
Currently:
1. US strikes Iran-linked sites in Syria in retaliation for attacks on US troops
2. How did they get it wrong: Israel-Hamas war has upended years of conventional wisdom
3. Data from the Gaza Health Ministry, questioned after the hospital explosion, has withstood past scrutiny
4. Parts of Gaza look like a wasteland from space. Look for the misshapen buildings and swaths of gray
5. Palestinians plead “stop the bombs” at UN meeting, but Israel insists Hamas must be “obliterated.”
Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
PRE-DAWN AIRSTRIKE BRINGS MORE DEATH, DESTRUCTION TO A GAZA NEIGHBOURHOOD
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — An early morning airstrike killed at least two people in a Gaza neighbourhood where several homes were damaged or destroyed.
The blast rocked Khan Younis hours before dawn, said Yasser Abu al-Arraj, who ran next door to pull a mother, daughter and a son, who was killed, from the wreckage.
“May God avenge us from (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” Abu al-Arraj said.
Chunks of concrete, clothing and broken furniture littered the street outside a home where the first floor remained standing.
A woman who survived the attack gestured toward a pile of cinderblocks that had toppled, saying she and the 19 others who survived had to search for each other through a cloud of dust. Nine children huddled on cushions on the other side of the room.
“People of Gaza are being shattered,” she said. “I can't believe that my kids came out of this alive.”
Boys outside picked through the sea of rubble, looking for anything that could be salvaged.
At another house that was damaged, Soaad Abdulahadi said she had been having breakfast with her children when the ceiling started to collapse.
“We just saw the house falling over our heads,” Abdulahadi said. “Half of them (my family) are in the hospital and the other half are displaced. This is our house, where should we go now?”
A US SPOKESMAN SAYS AMERICAN STRIKES ON IRAN PROXIES IN SYRIA WERE SELF DEFENCE
WASHINGTON — The White House national security spokesman told ABC's “Good Morning America” that US strikes on Iranian proxies in Syria were targeting storage and weapons facilities.
“These strikes were in self defense,” John Kirby said Friday.
He spoke hours after American fighter jets launched airstrikes early Friday on two locations linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Pentagon said the strikes were in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
Asked if Iran will retaliate, Kirby said, “It's not uncommon for them to strike back. If they do, we'll absolutely do what we have to do to protect our troops and our facilities."
"We'll be ready for that,” he added.
Speaking about the Israel-Hamas war and the timing of a ground offensive that Israel has announced, Kirby said that “we're not dictating terms to" the Israelis.
But he echoed President Joe Biden's comments that if “we can take some time to get more hostages out, that's something we all want to be looking at.”
In Israel, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that the ground offensive into Gaza will be long and difficult, with the aim to destroy a vast network of tunnels used by the territory's militant Hamas rulers.
A TRICKLE OF AID GETS INTO GAZA AS HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE DEEPENS
The International Committee of the Red Cross says that 10 of its staffers, including a combat surgery team, entered Gaza on Friday, along with six trucks of medical aid and water purification tablets.
The medical supplies are enough to treat between 1,000 and 5,000 people, the ICRC said, and the water purification tablets can treat 50,000 litres of water.
This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but it's not enough,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC's regional director.
“Our surgical team and medical supplies will help relieve the extreme pressure on Gaza's doctors and nurses. But safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed.”
“This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour,” he said.
Meanwhile, UNESCO said that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, more than 200 schools have been damaged in the Gaza Strip — around 40 per cent of all schools there. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)