New Delhi:
Israel military said they had conducted "limited" grounds raids into the Gaza Strip overnight to fight Hamas fighters, news agency Reuters reported. The army said the strikes were aimed at destroying sites where Hamas was assembling to attack Israel.
Here are 10 facts about the big story:
- In a televised briefing, Israel military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the country's ground forces carried out some raids inside Gaza. He said that the raids had been conducted by the "armoured and infantry" battalions.
- Elaborating on the incursions that went "deep" into Gaza, Hagari said, "During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for the our next stage in the war."
- He also said the Israeli forces were trying to find information on missing hostages. Over 200 people were taken hostage by Hamas operatives when they infiltrated and attacked cities in southern Israel on October 7.
- In retaliation, Israel has pummelled the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory with air strikes for over two weeks and is also mobilising troops along the Gaza border for a ground offensive.
- The Israeli military said it had hit "over 320 military targets in the Gaza Strip" over the past 24 hours.
- "The terror targets struck included tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centres... and Islamic Jihad terrorists, military compounds, and observation posts," the army said in a statement.
- Hamas released a statement too on the attacks and claimed that they destroyed the equipment of the Israeli raid party and forced them to retreat.
- “Fighters engaged with the infiltrating force, destroying two bulldozers and a tank and forced the force to withdraw, before they returned safely to base,” the Hamas statement said.
- Israel has warned more than one million residents in northern Gaza to move south for their safety, and the United Nations says more than half of the territory's 2.4-million population is now displaced.
- Hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to remain in and around Gaza City in the north, unwilling or unable to leave.
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