Tehran Times – Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that the regime’s troops have pushed through the outskirts of Gaza City.
A statement released by his office alleges:
“We’re at the height of the battle. We’ve had impressive successes and have passed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are advancing.”
In a separate post on social media, the Israeli PM wrote:
“Today with our fighters in the field. We have very impressive successes; we are already more than the outskirts of Gaza City. We are making progress. Nothing will stop us. We will move forward. We will advance and win.”
The chief of staff of the Israeli military has claimed that troops are operating inside Gaza City and are surrounding it from several directions.
In a statement from an air force base, reported by Israeli media, Herzi Halevi said:
“We have advanced another significant stage in the war. The forces are in the heart of northern Gaza, operating in Gaza City, surrounding it, and deepening [the ground offensive], and achievements.”
The Israeli military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, boasted that the regime’s army “always come out with the upper hand” in battles, using fire from “air and sea” when necessary.
Other Israeli military officials have made similar remarks.
In essence, the regime claims it has encircled Gaza City or entered the region’s main city, in their land offensive and wider war on the Gaza Strip.
At least 24 Israeli troops and officers have been killed in Gaza over the past few days, during the ground offensive. Dozens more have been injured, with some in critical condition. The number of Israeli troop fatalities is rising by the day.
Reports on the ground say Israeli tanks and troops have met fierce resistance from Hamas fighters as they try to press toward Gaza City.
Other reporters inside the Gaza Strip say the Israeli army was unable to advance on any fronts because of the fierce resistance it faced.
Hamas is said to have used hit-and-run attacks from its underground tunnel network, as well as launching mortars at Israeli forces.
Footage published by the resistance shows freedom fighters belonging to the armed wings of Hamas and its Islamic Jihad ally emerging from tunnels to fire at tanks, then disappearing back into the vast network.
“The Israeli forces are still outside the city, in the outskirts, and that means the resistance is heavier than they expected,” a report from inside Gaza City indicated.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers were driving over rubble and knocking down structures rather than using regular roads, locals told reporters inside the Gaza Strip.
“This is certainly terrain that is more heavily sown than in the past with minefields and boobytraps,” Iddo Mizrahi, the chief of the regime’s military engineers, later admitted to the Israeli Army Radio.
“Hamas has learned and prepared itself well,” he added.
Al-Qassam Brigades?, the armed wing of Hamas, published new footage showing scenes of its fighters engaging enemy vehicles east of the Zeitoun neighborhood. One of the vehicles can be seen being destroyed from zero distance, in classic guerrilla warfare, by planting bombs and using an “Al-Yassin 105” shell.
In a televised briefing, Abu Ubeida, the spokesperson for the al-Qassam Brigades?, declared, “One of the most prominent operations of our resistance today was the simultaneous operations in northwest Gaza, where our fighters were able to destroy 6 tanks.”
Abu Ubaida added that weeks after the start of the al-Aqsa Storm battle, the resistance is continuing to confront Israeli forces on all fronts in Gaza.
Addressing the Israeli settler population, he said, “Your leadership is lying to you about the number of dead soldiers,” before adding “await for more dead soldiers to return in body bags.”
The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Quds Brigades, said, “We confronted a Zionist force in an ambush northwest of Gaza and clashed with it from zero distance, causing casualties including one dead and one wounded among its ranks.’
There was always likely to be a massive escalation in the war once Israeli forces surrounded Gaza City.
While Israel managed to advance into rural areas, despite dozens of Israeli fatalities and casualties, an urban environment would certainly favor the defenders of the land over the attacking forces.
At present, Israel appears to be trying to make inroads through open fields and green areas, undoubtedly where they will make some gains in the direction of Gaza City.
The regime’s troops are equipped with warplanes, drones, tanks, and satellites, and that hands it the advantage of bombing wide areas before moving troops in.
Hamas fighters may tactically roll back gradually until the regime’s troops reach Gaza City, when it will become a completely different game altogether.
Conflict in an urban environment absolutely favors the defenders over the attackers, and that’s before you factor in the vast tunnel network.
Without a doubt, the Israeli forces will have no idea as to where they all are.
It is going to be very difficult for that next Israeli phase, but first of all, it is expected that the Israeli infantries will rely on all the regime’s ground and air resources to try and move in.
The invading force will try its best to encircle Gaza City. If it manages to do that, then the world is going to see a massive escalation.
So far, that doesn’t appear to have happened, contrary to Israeli propaganda. The reality on the ground is that the urban environment is seen as a much bigger challenge for the military than the rural ground they have covered so far.
Boobytraps are believed to lie in wait, while the Palestinian resistance will have prepared sniping and anti-tank positions.
The Israeli army will have to contend with a vast network of underground tunnels, which Hamas has already been using to launch surprise hit-and-run attacks on troops.
The Israeli army will face a nightmare in carrying out its military operation in Gaza while trying to avoid a growing death toll of its troops.
In the archives of modern military history, this is going to be one of the most difficult ground operations that any army has to carry out in one of the smallest territories in the world.
For the Israeli goal (which has been described as a dream) to achieve its objective of destroying Hamas, it would be complicit in the killing of around 230 hostages.
It will backfire on the Israeli settler population, who are already extremely fed up with their cabinet. This may explain why the occupation leaders are boasting about successes.
But the Palestinian resistance has proven for nearly two decades that it will drag this conflict out until the regime fails and the morale of its troops will no longer live up to the statements of its military and political leaders.
But this is no ordinary resistance. It has a track record of steadfastness and an ideology among its fighters of a choice between martyrdom or victory.
While the Israeli occupation regime has ignored all the laws of war, its Western sponsors were fully aware of the inevitability that civilians would be killed in such large numbers during its military operations, making them complicit.
Something U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken failed to address during his meetings with Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet in Tel Aviv on Friday.
Contrary to Western government statements, Hamas and other resistance factions would not benefit from any ceasefire to regroup, reassess or restore their positions. They are already doing that underground.
The Israeli ground forces appear to be the beneficiaries of any halt to the current heavy exchange of fire to avoid an increasing death toll, something that does not favor the Israeli settler population.
A ceasefire would genuinely benefit Gazan children, hundreds of thousands of whom need urgent humanitarian care and are holed up in a tiny blockaded region, where its biggest hospital has been forced to switch off one of its generators due to a lack of fuel.
Before October 7, the Palestinian resistance had studied all the scenarios, including the most barbaric Israeli response, which the Gaza Strip has endured on one occasion too many.
The resistance has learned lessons from Israeli barbaric war crimes in the past, and today, it appears to have carefully planned and prepared for the ground invasion.
Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad has said his people have a “legal right to fight occupation” and will continue to do so.
Hamas added that Palestinians had no alternative to the organization because it was the only body committed to fighting against Israel’s occupation of their land – and that the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank has been incapable of preventing the Israeli regime from expanding its settlement activity.
