The Israeli army announced on Tuesday that it had taken over government buildings from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza City, including the Parliament and government and police buildings. Since the bloody Hamas attack on October 7, which left 1,200 dead in Israel, the majority civilians according to the Israeli authorities, the Israeli army has been relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip and its tanks are now tightening their grip on the city of Gaza, particularly around hospitals, used according to Israel as logistical and military bases by Hamas.
Footage Shows Israeli Soldiers on Hamas Parliament Leader’s Dais
The Israeli army claims to have taken control of the “Hamas Parliament, government headquarters, Hamas police headquarters and an engineering faculty that was used for the production and development of weapons.” On social media, images show Israeli soldiers unfurling the blue and white flag of Israel on the platform of the head of Parliament as well as soldiers posing in front of a wall where a badge reading “Headquarters of the military police”.
“It’s very good news, yes. We just have to finish the job now. I’m sure the army is doing everything for that,” reacted a resident of the town of Sderot, located near the Gaza Strip. “Our state of mind is at half mast. Just try to think that in one day 1,400 people died… And all the babies are still there,” sobbed one woman. “I just ask that our army not stop there. Let it not stop until everyone there can return to their homes,” she implores.
The Palestinian Parliament, which is supposed to sit in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank where the Palestinian Authority is based, has been dormant for years and was officially dissolved in 2018. Since Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in 2007, the two Palestinian territories actually depend on parallel authorities. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli bombardments from the air, sea and now tanks on the ground have left more than 11,000 dead, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.