Israel expands Gaza offensive, sends troops into Hamas tunnels

Israel announced on Tuesday that it had launched an attack on Hamas terrorists within the Islamists’ extensive network of tunnels beneath Gaza. This came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected calls for a ceasefire to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave. As Israel steps up ground operations inside Gaza to destroy the ruling Hamas movement in the wake of its gun rampage three weeks ago that left over 1,400 people dead, the tunnels are a major goal. “Over the last day, combined IDF combat forces struck approximately 300 targets, including anti-tank missile and rocket launch posts below shafts, as well as military compounds inside underground tunnels belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization,” the Israel Defernce Forces (IDF) said in a statement. Hamas terrorists responded with anti-tank missiles and machine gun fire, it added. “The soldiers killed terrorists and directed air forces to real-time strikes on targets and terror infrastructure,” the IDF said. According to witnesses, Israeli forces attacked Gaza City from two directions on Monday, focusing on the city’s main north-south road. Israel claimed that one of its soldiers was released from Hamas custody. Of the 239 hostages that Israel claims were taken on October 7, four civilians have been freed by Hamas, the armed Islamist organisation that controls Gaza. It’s thought that the Hamas tunnel network is home to a large number of the hostages. The armed wing of Hamas, known as the al-Qassam brigades, reported that terrorists and Israeli forces engaged in combat early on Tuesday. The Israeli forces were “invading the southern Gaza axis, (including) with machine guns, and targeted four vehicles with al-Yassin 105 missiles,” which are anti-tank missiles made locally. Al-Qassam said that the terrorists used the missiles to target two Israeli tanks and bulldozers in the northwest of Gaza. Since October 7, 8,306 people—3,457 of them minors—have died as a result of Israeli attacks, according to Gaza health authorities. Of the approximately 2.3 million civilians living in Gaza, over 1.4 million have become homeless, according to U.N. officials. The United States, Israel’s main ally, other nations, and the United Nations have called for a ceasefire in the fighting to allow more humanitarian aid to reach the enclave due to the increasing death toll. Late on Monday, Netanyahu declared that Israel would continue with its plans to destroy Hamas and would not consent to an end to hostilities with the terrorist organisation in Gaza. “Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism. That will not happen,” Netanyahu said in televised remarks. Israeli forces are advancing slowly in their ground offensive, according to military experts, in part to leave open the possibility that Hamas terrorists will mediate the hostages’ release. Compared to Israel’s previous land offensives in Gaza and the past three weeks of relentless airstrikes on the Mediterranean enclave, Israeli troops have been relatively cautious in taking and securing portions of territory during the first few days of continuous ground operations in Gaza. (With agency inputs)