Experts fear attrition
Israel announces advance into “centre of Gaza city”
November 7, 2023, 8:34 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
Israeli President Netanyahu rejects a ceasefire without first releasing the Hamas hostages. Meanwhile, his army is advancing in the Gaza Strip. The military reports that it has reached the center of Gaza City. Military experts fear that grueling battles will follow.
A month after the unprecedented attack on Israel by the radical Islamic group Hamas, the Israeli army says it has advanced into the center of the city of Gaza. “We are in the heart of the city of Gaza,” said Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Gallant. The city of Gaza is “the largest terrorist base ever built in the world,” said Gallant. According to the Israeli military, the city in the north of the Gaza Strip had previously been surrounded. A spokesman recently said the coastal area is now divided into northern and southern halves.
According to the Israeli army, a “military base of the Hamas terrorist organization in the northern Gaza Strip was secured” in recent fighting. There were anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons and various intelligence materials on the site.
Meanwhile, military experts warned of weeks of grueling house-to-house fighting in the Gaza Strip. According to Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, Hamas has had “15 years” to expand its “underground, ground-level and above-ground fortifications.” The Israeli army’s actions are viewed as risky, particularly because of the hostages allegedly held in Hamas tunnels, including small children and elderly people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, ruled out a ceasefire without first releasing the more than 240 Hamas hostages. In an interview with US television channel ABC News, he said the war would continue until Israel restored control of the Gaza Strip and “general security” was guaranteed. However, he was open to “small breaks” in aid deliveries to the civilian population called for by the USA.
“Month of massacre, of incessant suffering, of bloodshed”
Meanwhile, the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip is worsening. UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk spoke during a trip to the region of a “month of massacre, incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair.” On Tuesday, Türk was in Egypt for talks, on Wednesday he plans to visit the Egyptian border crossing at Rafah, and on Thursday he plans to visit Jordan.
Meanwhile, around 1,400 people who died and more than 240 who were kidnapped by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were commemorated across the country in Israel. While the war against the Islamists continued, Israel paused at 11 a.m. (local time). “The atrocities have left a terrible mark,” said the president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Ascher Cohen, at a mourning ceremony. “But there is hope. There will be rebirth.”
There is “not a single person who has not been affected by these terrible attacks,” said 52-year-old Sharon Balaban at a memorial event in Jerusalem. “Everyone knows someone who has been injured, killed, murdered or affected.” Jossi Rivlin, who is mourning the loss of his two brothers, said he hoped that people “don’t forget” the dead and those kidnapped and don’t just move on to business as usual.