Israeli tanks have entered Gaza, Hamas releases video of 3 female hostages
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Israel is pushing further into Gaza with tanks and soldiers, expanding its ground offensive amid its air campaign.
Israeli ground offensive in Gaza
According to The Washington Post, “Israeli forces have entered the outskirts of Gaza City, with the initial movements of the assault shrouded in secrecy.”
At least 8,000 people in Gaza have been killed so far since militant group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. At least 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the attack, Israeli authorities reported.
The ground invasion is on its fifth day, and The New York Times reported that “Israeli military continued to offer few details.”
An Israeli strike hit a refugee camp in northern Gaza Tuesday, where the Ministry of Interior in Gaza said “20 homes were completely destroyed in the Israeli bombing that targeted a residential neighbourhood in Jabalya,” according to CNN.
Israeli Defense Forces confirmed the strike with CNN, and photos at the site “showed multiple large craters in the ground, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed and damaged buildings.”
Humanitarian aid in Gaza
Despite calls for cease-fire from United Nations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “categorically dismissed any possibility of a cease-fire,” saying that “this is a time of war,” per the Times.
More than half of Gaza’s Palestinians have fled for shelter outside of their homes. Gaza has a population of about 2.3 million people, The Associated Press reported. For the Gaza residents still in the region, humanitarian needs have escalated, and now Cyprus is proposing a sea corridor in order “to deliver a stream of vital humanitarian aid to Gaza from the island’s main port of Limassol once the situation on the ground permits it.”
On Tuesday, 60 aid trucks arrived on the Rafah border, heading to Nitzana, Israel, per ABC News.
Concerns of the conflict growing outside Gaza-Israel
Government leaders have expressed concerns the conflict could extend outside of Israel and Gaza, and many have called for a cease-fire.
“It is also important that this war does not escalate into a major regional conflict,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, per AP. “The suffering we have seen in recent weeks reminds us once again that we must not give up the work for a lasting, peaceful political solution to the conflict.”
United Nations Security-General António Guterres said in a statement Tuesday that he’s “deeply alarmed by the intensification of the conflict between Israel and Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza,” per ABC News.
“An immediate humanitarian cease-fire has become a matter of life and death for millions,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency, said, per CNN.
Hamas released video of female Israeli hostages pleading for help
On Monday, Hamas released a short video clip showing three of the more than 230 hostages. The three hostages were Israeli women, and one of them “issues an impassioned message directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, deriding him for failing to prevent Hamas’ attack and for failing to secure the release of the captives,” CBS News reported.
It’s not clear what is scripted or whether what she said was dictated by Hamas or not.
“You promised to free us all. Instead we bear your political and military failure,” Daniel Aloni, the woman says, who was kidnapped with her daughter on Oct. 7, per CBS News.
