A pictured taken in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on December 5, 2023, shows smoke billowing following Israeli airstrikes amid continuing battles between Israel and the Hamas terror group, December 5, 2023. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)
Published December 6, 2023
Military death toll from ground operation rises to 83; US said to expect heavy fighting to wrap up in January, move to less intense phase of war
Israeli troops engaged in heavy fighting with Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip throughout Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning while striving to minimize the damage done to civilians and civilian infrastructure in the over-crowded southern part of the coastal enclave.
On Wednesday morning, the Israel Defense forces said that while troops engaged in fierce battles with Hamas on the ground, the air force had carried out strikes against more than 250 targets over the last day.
The 7th Armored Brigade directed airstrikes at two rocket launchers used to lob barrages at central Israel on Tuesday, the IDF said in a statement, and added that several Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives and their infrastructure were hit during air force strikes.
In northern Gaza, where the Kfir Infantry Brigade started operating for the first time since Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip in 2005, troops killed a group of Hamas operatives near a school, the IDF said, adding that a destroyed tunnel shaft and weapons were subsequently uncovered in the area. Troops also found weapons in a school elsewhere in the northern part of the enclave.
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SOURCE: www.timesofIsrael.com
RELATED: Israel army in most intense combat in Gaza war, no safe place to evacuate
Heaviest fighting in two months of conflict with non-stop attacks in enclave’s south and central areas.
Israel has shifted focus southwards after destroying much of the north of Gaza [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
Published December 6, 2023
The Israeli army has widened its attacks in southern and central Gaza, with some of the heaviest fighting in the war seeing homes sheltering displaced Palestinians bombed, refugee camps hit and no safe place left to evacuate thousands of people already on the move for weeks.
From early Wednesday morning, “under heavy aerial bombardment, Israeli tanks started pushing deeper and deeper to the centre of Khan Younis city, coming from the eastern side,” reported Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah, in southern Gaza, forcing hundreds of people to flee the area.
“Everybody thought the eastern areas of Khan Younis were the main target, as the leaflets that were dropped on the residents stated, but it seems like the entire city of Khan Younis is under heavy bombardment right now,” Mahmoud said, of the leaflets dropped by Israeli forces ordering residents to evacuate.
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SOURCE: www.aljazeera.com
RELATED: Humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza as Israel-Hamas fighting intensifies
Published December 6, 2023
- Israel’s air force struck about 250 Hamas targetsin Gaza over the past 24 hours as troops continued to locate the militant group’s weapons, underground shafts, explosives and military infrastructure, the Israeli military said Wednesday.
- There have been reports of high casualties after the Israeli military launched strikes on targets in and around the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. In the south, the Israeli military said Tuesday it’s encircling Khan Younis, with the Israel Defense Forces operating “in the heart” of the territory’s second-largest city.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday again rejected the idea that an international force could be responsible for security in Gaza after the war, saying Israeli troops should retain control over the disarmament of the strip.
- Meanwhile, the US expects the current phase of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza targeting the southern end of the strip to last several weeks before Israel transitions, possibly by January, to a strategy that narrowly targets specific Hamas militants and leaders, senior administration officials tell CNN.
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SOURCE: www.amp.cnn.com
