Published October 31,2023
- Israeli forces battled Hamas gunmen inside terrorists’ tunnel network in Gaza
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Israel today said it has killed ‘dozens’ of Hamas terrorists during ‘fierce’ fighting ‘deep’ inside Gaza with video showing soldiers scouring the streets for the gunmen amid raging battles.
Israeli troops attacked Hamas positions within the terrorists’ vast tunnel network in a bid to free hostages trapped there – a key objective for Israel as it it expands ground operations inside Gaza to wipe out Hamas following its gun rampage three weeks ago that killed over 1,400 people.
In the fifth day of major ground operations inside northern Gaza, the army said it had engaged in ‘fierce battles’ with Hamas terrorists, with footage showing columns of tanks and soldiers advancing further into the besieged enclave.
The IDF said its forces ‘struck a Hamas terrorist outpost’ in the northern Gaza Strip in the last few hours where they killed ‘dozens’ of gunmen and destroyed anti-tank missile launch and observation posts.
Video released by the IDF shows Israeli troops walking through the bombed out streets of northern Gaza while raising their guns at the destroyed buildings – ready to pounce at any movement of Hamas terrorists potentially hiding within.
The army said it had hit around 300 targets and confiscated ‘numerous weapons’ such as guns and bombs as well as ‘military compounds inside underground tunnels’ belonging to Hamas terrorists.
The tunnels under the cramped enclave are a prime objective for Israel. Some of the 240 hostages that Israel says were seized by Hamas that day are believed to be held in the tunnel complex, adding a further complication for the Israelis on top of the difficulties of fighting in an urban setting.
RELATED: Israeli Air Strike Kills 50 at Gaza Refugee Camp, Hospital Chief Tells Al Jazeera
Palestinians search for casualties at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, October 31, 2023. REUTERS/Anas al-ShareefREUTERS
Published October 30,2023
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel said its forces fought Hamas gunmen inside the militants’ vast tunnel network beneath Gaza as a hospital director said more than 50 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a refugee camp in the besieged enclave.
As the battle inside the tiny Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory intensified, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed international calls for a halt to the fighting.
But U.N. and other aid officials warned that a public health catastrophe was engulfing civilians in Gaza, with hospitals struggling to cope with mounting casualties and food, medicine, drinking water and fuel running short.
The director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital told Al Jazeera that more than 50 Palestinians were killed and 150 wounded in Israeli air strikes on a densely populated area of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
The tunnels under the cramped enclave are a prime objective for Israel as it expands a four-day-old ground offensive – after three weeks of aerial bombardment – into Gaza from the north to hit Hamas in retaliation for the Islamist group’s deadly surprise attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Some of the 240 hostages that Israel says were seized by Hamas that day are believed to be held in the tunnel complex, adding a further complication for the Israelis on top of the difficulties of fighting in an urban setting.
RELATED: A ‘spider web’ of Hamas tunnels in Gaza Strip raises risks amid Israeli ground offensive
A member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group sets up a mortar in a tunnel in the Gaza Strip on April 17, 2022. (Photo: AFP/Mahmud HAMS)
Published October 31,2023
JERUSALEM: Amid an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, one of the greatest threats to both its troops and the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped inside the seaside enclave is buried deep underground.
An extensive labyrinth of tunnels built by Palestinian militant group Hamas stretches across the densely populated strip, hiding fighters, their rocket arsenal and over 200 hostages they now hold after the unprecedented Oct 7 attack on Israel. Islamic Jihad, another militant group, also uses the tunnels.
Clearing and collapsing those tunnels will be crucial if Israel seeks to dismantle Hamas. But fighting in densely populated urban areas and moving underground could strip the Israeli military of some of its technological advantages while giving an edge to Hamas both above and below ground.
“I usually say it’s like walking down the street waiting to get punched in the face,” said John Spencer, a retired United States Army Major and the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point.
Urban defenders, he added, “had time to think about where they are going to be and there’s millions of hidden locations they can be in. They get to choose the time of the engagement — you can’t see them but they can see you.”
Overnight on Saturday (Oct 28), the Israeli military said its warplanes struck 150 underground Hamas targets in northern Gaza, describing them as tunnels, combat spaces and other underground infrastructure. The strikes – what appeared to be Israel’s most significant bombardment of tunnels yet – came as it ramped up its ground operations in Gaza.
WHAT THE PAST HAS SHOWN
Tunnel warfare has been a feature of history, from the Roman siege of the ancient Greek city of Ambracia to Ukrainian fighters holding off Russian forces in 24km of Soviet-era tunnels beneath Mariupol’s Azovstal Iron and Steel Works for some 80 days in 2022.
The reason is simple: tunnel battles are considered some of the most difficult for armies to fight. A determined enemy in a tunnel or cave system can pick where the fight will start – and often determine how it will end – given the abundant opportunities for ambush.
That’s especially true in the Gaza Strip, home to Hamas’ tunnel system that Israel has named the “Metro”.
