LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
- Shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the country is entering the next phase of its operation to counter Hamas, IDF spokesperson urges residents away from Hamas strongholds, saying ‘our fight is with Hamas, not the people of Gaza'
- Israeli fighter jets strike some 450 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip over past 24 hours, the IDF says, following airstrikes and ground troops surge into the besieged enclave
- For the second time in as many days, Tel Aviv vows to allow aid to enter Gaza amid U.N. report that thousands raided aid warehouses for food, ‘basic survival items’
- UNRWA confirms internet connections partially restored in Gaza after communications blackout stalled aid convoys
Israel’s military says it is intensifying its military strikes targeting Hamas militants in Gaza, with more air attacks and ground operations.
Military officials Sunday said ground forces killed a number of Hamas militants as they were exiting a tunnel near the Erez crossing, which used to be the sole pedestrian passageway out of Gaza into Israel before it was destroyed in the recent fighting. It was unclear how many militants were killed by Israeli forces.
Hamas has a sprawling network of tunnels underneath Gaza where it is believed to be stockpiling weapons, food, and other supplies.
The Israel Defense Forces said early Sunday that its fighter jets struck 450 Hamas targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours, including strikes near Shifa Hospital, one of Gaza’s largest, which is packed with patients and a destination for those seeking shelter.
“Hamas terrorists operate inside and under civilian buildings, precisely because they know the IDF distinguishes between terrorists and civilians,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a video address posted to X, formerly Twitter, early Sunday.
The IDF is "expanding its operations," he said, before urging residents away from “Hamas strongholds” and to head south. Hagari largely echoed Saturday, comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned Saturday, the war would be “long and hard.” Netanyahu called the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war a fight for Israel’s existence and said “‘Never again’ is now.”
Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group carried out a terror attack on Israel October 7, killing 1,400 people and abducting over 200 hostages. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations since.
Israel should take every means possible to distinguish between Palestinian civilians and Hamas militants in its expanded ground military operation in Gaza, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan cautioned Sunday in an interview with ABC’s This Week.
Sullivan said that Israel was attacked “in a brutal, vicious terrorist attack,” on October 7 and is taking steps to go after Hamas militants who, as he said, are “hiding behind the civilian population.” This, he said, “puts an added burden in Israel to differentiate between the terrorists and innocent civilians but it doesn’t lessen their responsibility under international, humanitarian law and the laws of war to do all their power to protect the civilian population.”
Chaos in Gaza
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said thousands of people broke into its Gaza aid warehouses to take food and other “basic survival items” early on Sunday. Thomas White, the agency’s director in Gaza, said the break-in was “a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down.”
Many buildings in Gaza are reduced to rubble. The Gaza-based Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas but has historically provided reliable data on casualties, said some 8,000 Gazans, mostly women and children, have died since Israel's campaign to obliterate the militant organization started. The figures could not be independently verified.
Hamas, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group, on Saturday vowed to confront the Israeli attacks with "full force." The al-Qassam brigades, an armed wing of Hamas, said its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gaza's northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of al-Bureij.
The IDF is "expanding its operations," he said, before urging residents away from “Hamas strongholds” and to head south. Hagari largely echoed Saturday, comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned Saturday, the war would be “long and hard.” Netanyahu called the 3-week-old Israel-Hamas war a fight for Israel’s existence and said “‘Never again’ is now.”
Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group carried out a terror attack on Israel October 7, killing 1,400 people and abducting over 200 hostages. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military operations since.
Israel should take every means possible to distinguish between Palestinian civilians and Hamas militants in its expanded ground military operation in Gaza, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan cautioned Sunday in an interview with ABC’s This Week.
Sullivan said that Israel was attacked “in a brutal, vicious terrorist attack,” on October 7 and is taking steps to go after Hamas militants who, as he said, are “hiding behind the civilian population.” This, he said, “puts an added burden in Israel to differentiate between the terrorists and innocent civilians but it doesn’t lessen their responsibility under international, humanitarian law and the laws of war to do all their power to protect the civilian population.”
Chaos in Gaza
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said thousands of people broke into its Gaza aid warehouses to take food and other “basic survival items” early on Sunday. Thomas White, the agency’s director in Gaza, said the break-in was “a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down.”
Many buildings in Gaza are reduced to rubble. The Gaza-based Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas but has historically provided reliable data on casualties, said some 8,000 Gazans, mostly women and children, have died since Israel's campaign to obliterate the militant organization started. The figures could not be independently verified.
Hamas, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group, on Saturday vowed to confront the Israeli attacks with "full force." The al-Qassam brigades, an armed wing of Hamas, said its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gaza's northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of al-Bureij.
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