Israel announces ‘large attack’ in Gaza
The Israeli military announced that its forces had fully encircled Gaza City and were carrying out “a significant operation” in the Gaza Strip late yesterday, as the entire enclave was plunged into the same kind of widespread communications blackout that cut it off from the world during Israel’s initial ground invasion 10 days ago.
“At this hour, we are carrying out a large attack on terrorist infrastructure both below and above ground,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said in a late-night briefing.
Journalists’ reports were limited by the blackout, but the BBC said one of its Gaza reporters thought the night had brought “the most intense airstrikes since the beginning of the war,” largely focused in northwest Gaza. Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, reported “violent explosions and an unprecedented bombardment,” saying the raids targeted the vicinities of several hospitals and had killed and injured dozens.
Israel has quietly, and unsuccessfully, tried to build international support in recent weeks for the transfer of several hundred thousand civilians from Gaza to Egypt, senior foreign diplomats said.
In Tel Aviv: Thousands gathered in front of Israel’s central military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to call on the government to do more to rescue the more than 200 hostages held in Gaza.
In Thailand: Dozens of migrant farmworkers were seized or killed in Hamas’s brutal Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. At home, their relatives are pleading for answers: “We have nothing to do with their war.”
The U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, on Sunday in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Pool.
Source: Reuters
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