Conflict spreads in the Middle East

SGGP October 31, 2023 05:50

Reuters news agency quoted several sources as saying that early on the morning of October 30, the Israeli army carried out intense airstrikes and artillery fire in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli soldiers, supported by tanks, continued to expand their ground campaign against Hamas forces.

Smoke rises from the Gaza Strip on the morning of October 30.

Gunfire all night long

The Israeli military said it had struck more than 600 Hamas targets in the past few days, killing dozens of militants holed up in buildings and tunnels. Meanwhile, Palestinian media reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted areas near Al-Shifa and Al-Quds hospitals in the Gaza Strip; while Palestinian gunmen clashed with Israeli forces in the eastern border area of ​​Khan Younis (southern Gaza Strip).

At least 20 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured when Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip from multiple directions on the night of October 29, health officials in the Gaza Strip said.

According to many residents in the Gaza Strip, they heard gunshots and explosions throughout the night. Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were fighting with the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank city of Jenin. Israel has now expanded its ground offensive, with the entire northern Gaza Strip now a battlefield.

Along with the aerial bombardment campaign, the Israeli army announced that it had increased its troop numbers and penetrated deeper into the Gaza Strip, and released videos showing Merkava tank columns fighting in the territory.

In a related development, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it recorded 10 rocket launches from Lebanon into Israeli territory on October 29 and the IDF is responding with strikes.

On the same day, Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed force, announced that it had shot down an Israeli drone in southern Lebanon with a surface-to-air missile. This was the first time Hezbollah had claimed to have shot down an Israeli drone.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel carried out missile attacks on several areas in the southern Syrian province of Daraa in response to alleged missile fire from Syria.

Fighting is escalating simultaneously on all three fronts that the Israeli army is deploying, causing regional public opinion to fear that the conflict is at risk of spreading throughout the Middle East.

Protecting civilians

The White House announced that US President Joe Biden had a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and stressed the need for Israel to protect civilians. Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud also had a phone call, stressing the need for regional and international action to immediately stop Israeli attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store condemned the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, noting that nearly half of the thousands killed were children. The Norwegian Prime Minister also said that Israel has the right to defend itself and that it is difficult to defend against attacks from a densely populated area like Gaza, while criticizing the continued rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.

In an update on the morning of October 30, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 33 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian border. This is the largest relief convoy into the strip of more than 2.3 million people since the Hamas-Israel conflict broke out earlier this month.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/xung-dot-lan-rong-o-trung-dong-post712097.html