Israeli troops raid the Gaza Strip: this is the first step of a ground operation

Israeli troops and tanks raided the Gaza Strip on the night of October 26. The military said it carried out several strikes on terrorist targets to “prepare the battlefield” ahead of a major ground operation. Writes about this New York Post.

Photo: IStock

The raid came after the UN warned that the Gaza Strip could run out of fuel, forcing it to sharply scale back aid efforts in the territory, which has been under a complete siege since deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel began. war this month.

The increase in death toll is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip reported on October 25 that more than 24 people had died in the past 750 hours, topping the 704 deaths the previous day.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the death toll, and the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and Hamas terrorists.

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The Israeli military says it only attacks terrorist targets and accuses Hamas of inciting provocations among civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the war, Hamas terrorists have bombarded Israel with several thousand rockets.

During the night raid, soldiers killed militants and destroyed terrorist infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch sites, the military said.

According to the military, no Israelis were injured.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagary said the limited invasion was "part of our preparation for the next stages of the war."

Israel said it carried out about 24 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip over the past 250 hours, hitting tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and other terrorist infrastructure.

An airstrike on the southern town of Khan Yunis damaged a residential building where family members said there were 75 people inside, including 25 who fled other parts of the Gaza Strip.

Ambulances are flocking to the nearby Nasser Hospital, but there are no official casualties.

More than 6500 Palestinians have died during the war, according to the Gaza Strip's Health Ministry. This figure includes the disputed death toll from the hospital explosion.

In Israel, the fighting has killed more than 1400 people, mostly civilians killed in the first Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government.

In addition, Hamas is holding at least 224 hostages.

A warning from the UN agency for Palestine refugees UNRWA that fuel supplies are running low has raised alarms that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen.

The population of the Gaza Strip also experiences shortages of food, water and medicine.

About 1,4 million of the region's 2,3 million people have fled their homes, with almost half of them in UN shelters.

Hundreds of thousands remain in the northern Gaza Strip, although Israel has advised them to evacuate to the south because otherwise those remaining could be considered "collaborators" of Hamas.

Israel has allowed more than 60 trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Egypt in recent days, which experts say is not enough and is only a fraction of what was delivered before the war.

Israel continues to ban the supply of fuel needed to run generators, in the belief that Hamas will take it away.

A representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross hopes to deliver eight truckloads of life-saving medical supplies.

“This is a small part of what is required, a drop in the ocean,” said William Schomburg, head of the subdelegation in Gaza. “We are trying to establish a supply chain.”

UNRWA shares its fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can operate incubators, life support machines and other vital equipment.

If this continues, the fuel will run out by Thursday, so the agency is deciding how to ration supplies, UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai said.

“What will we turn off - incubators or bakeries? she asked. “This is a painful decision.”

In the Gaza Strip, more than half of primary health care facilities and about a third of hospitals have shut down, according to the World Health Organization.

At Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a lack of medicine and clean water has led to "alarming" levels of infections, the group Doctors Without Borders said.

To prevent the spread of infection among the wounded, amputations often have to be performed.

One surgeon told how he amputated half of a 9-year-old boy's foot under "mild sedation" on the hallway floor as his mother and sister looked on.

There are fears that the conflict could spread throughout the region.

On October 25, the Israeli military announced that it had attacked military targets in Syria in response to rocket attacks from that country.

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Syrian state media reported that eight soldiers were killed and seven were injured.

Strikes in Syria also targeted Aleppo and Damascus airports in an attempt to prevent Iranian arms shipments to terrorist groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Israel exchanges fire almost daily with Iran-backed Hezbollah on the Lebanese border.

Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks in the early hours of Oct. 16 sparked open fires in the border town of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, where clashes intensified, Lebanon's state news agency reported.

On October 25, it announced attacks on towns in the Tire region, which, according to it, damaged a mattress factory.

Hamas's surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 stunned the country with its brutality, unprecedented number of casualties and the fact that security services were unaware it was coming.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech that he will be held accountable, but only after Hamas is defeated.

“We will get to the bottom of what happened,” he said. — This failure will be investigated. Everyone will have to answer, including me."

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• October 7 Hamas attacked Israel: Netanyahu said "this is war."
• 8 October The Israeli government officially declared war and greenlighted "significant military steps" in response to the surprise attack by Hamas militants.
• October 11, first plane with American weapons arrived in southern Israel, and the US government is offering American citizens wishing to leave Israel evacuation flights. On October 14, it became known that Egypt, Israel and the United States agreed that foreigners living in the Gaza Strip, will be able to travel through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
• October 16 President US Joe Biden said Israeli occupation Gaza Strip would be a big mistake.
• Hossein Amir-Abdallahian, Iranian Foreign Minister, October 18 posted a tweet where he wrote that Israel’s time is “running out”. This happened after a rocket attack on a hospital in Gaza took place on October 17.
• 18 October US President Joe Biden visited Israelto express strong support for a country that has declared war on the Palestinian group Hamas due to its brutal terror.
• 19 October US President Joe Biden addressed the Americans from the Oval Office with a speech about the wars between Israel and Hamas, as well as Russia and Ukraine.
• October 24 Hamas released two hostages: about what one of them said.
• On October 24, at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the situation in the Middle East is becoming more dire by the hour and called on all parties to respect and protect civilians. Israel reacted angrily to comments by the UN Secretary General.

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