Israeli forces have broken through Hamas’ front lines of defence in northern Gaza, Israel’s military spokesperson said on Thursday morning, November 2.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari confirmed the new development, saying ‘The ground operation is progressing as planned.”
“With advance planning, precise intelligence, and joint attacks [from the land, air, and sea], our forces broke through Hamas’s front lines of defense in the north of the Gaza Strip,” Hagari says.
Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, the commander of the IDF’s 162nd Division, added that the Israeli forces had advanced deep into Gaza and were “at the gates of Gaza City.” He added that the IDF, over the past five days, has destroyed much of Hamas’s capabilities, attacked its strategic facilities, all of its array of explosives, its underground tunnels and other facilities.”
Cohen said that it was a long task and much work remained.
The IDF also claimed that it killed the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, Muhammad A’sar. According to the military, A’sar was responsible for all of Hamas’s anti-tank missile units throughout the Gaza Strip, commanded the units in routine times, and assisted their activity in emergencies. Under his command, numerous missile attacks had been carried out against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, added the IDF.
Hamas has claimed that at least 195 Palestinians died in Israel’s attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp. Over 120 people were missing under the rubble. At least 777 people were wounded, it said in a statement.
The U.N. Human Rights officials had called the attacks war crimes. “Given the high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction following Israeli air strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, we have serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote on social media site X.
