Israel says fighting 'fierce' with Hamas, may want to split Gaza Strip

Israel has sent troops into the Gaza Strip from three directions (Photo: New York Times).

In a statement, the Israeli military said dozens of Hamas fighters had been killed in the past few hours.

The Israeli army struck "anti-tank missile launchers as well as observation posts" and seized numerous weapons, including guns and explosives, the statement added.

Meanwhile, Hamas' armed wing said its fighters ambushed Israeli troops in the Al-Tawam area in northern Gaza.

Hamas militants "opened fire in an ambush targeting Israeli army vehicles west of Tawam in the northern Gaza Strip," the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said.

Three directions of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip (Graphic: New York Times).

Gaza's Interior Ministry later said Israeli forces had entered northwestern Gaza and were present in Al Karama (a neighborhood north of Gaza City) and on Salah al-Din Road (the main highway of the Gaza Strip).

The agency added that Israeli forces were trying to reach Al-Rasheed, the coastal highway, "while seeking to separate the northern Gaza Strip from the south".

The battlefield claims could not be immediately verified.

Israel appears to have begun its long-anticipated ground offensive on the evening of October 27, when its ground forces entered the Gaza Strip in large numbers and have remained there ever since. Around the same time, Gaza’s telephone and Internet networks were cut off, although Israel has not confirmed its involvement.

The Israeli military and leaders have not yet called this a full-scale attack, but only the "third phase" in the war with Hamas.

“Everything is happening in secret,” Andreas Krieg, a war expert at King’s College, London, told the New York Times , adding that only “a very small group of people really know what’s going on, even in Israel.”

A person was injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip (Photo: New York Times).

On the same day, October 31, Iran warned of the risk of widespread conflict if Hamas and Israel did not reach a ceasefire, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to consider because he believed it would be "surrender to Hamas".

"It is natural that protest groups and movements will not remain silent" in the face of Israel's actions, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said while visiting Qatar to seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict, according to a transcript provided by the country's Foreign Ministry.

Iran often refers to the forces it backs against Israel as "resistance groups," such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, which borders Israel to the north.

"They will not wait for anyone's advice, so we need to take advantage of the last political opportunities to prevent war," he said, warning that the situation could "get out of control".

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/israel-noi-giao-tranh-ac-liet-voi-hamas-co-the-muon-cat-doi-dai-gaza-20231031213748506.htm