Israeli troops battle Hamas militants in Gaza

An Israeli armored vehicle waiting at a certain location for armored vehicle bulldozers to clear the road

Latest situation updates:

• The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet said a Hamas commander who helped plan the October 7 terror attack was killed in an airstrike.
• The Israel Defense Forces said that combined ground and air forces attacked approximately 300 targets in the past 24 hours.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls to declare a ceasefire in Gaza.
• The head of the United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency says the situation in Gaza is “collapsing.”

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Israel said its forces fought Hamas militants and attacked the group’s tunnel network in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday (October 31), while an attack near a refugee camp reportedly killed dozens of people. die.

The Hamas-run Palestinian Interior Ministry said Israeli airstrikes hit areas around the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least 50 people.

Israeli Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht confirmed the attack to the media. “There was a very senior Hamas commander in that area,” he said. “We are investigating this and as we learn what happened there and have more data, we will explain it.”

Israel accused Hamas of using civilian buildings as cover and said its strikes killed some Hamas militants. Israel also reported its first military deaths: two soldiers were killed in northern Gaza.

The current battle has no end in sight. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for a ceasefire from countries around the world.

Earlier, Israel said an Israeli airstrike killed a Hamas commander who was involved in planning the deadly terror attack on October 7. Hamas’s attack on southern Israel killed 1,400 people.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and internal security agency Shin Bet said the person killed was Nasim Abu Ajina, who commanded the Beit Lasia battalion of Hamas’s Northern Brigade. officer who helped plan the daring invasion using drones and paragliders.

The Israel Defense Forces also said that Israeli air-ground forces hit approximately 300 targets in the past 24 hours, including anti-tank missile and underground rocket launch sites and military facilities in Hamas underground tunnels. The Israeli military said a Hamas terrorist was killed during combat operations.

Hamas operates a vast network of underground tunnels in Gaza where it is believed to store weapons, food and other supplies. The United States designates Hamas a terrorist organization.

Israeli troops and tanks are steadily advancing further into northern Gaza, expanding their military presence in Gaza.

Since Hamas launched a surprise attack on October 7, Israel has continued to launch air strikes on Gaza, creating a humanitarian crisis in the crowded Palestinian area. The Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry said on Monday that more than 8,300 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in air strikes. The humanitarian organization Save the Children said more than 3,000 children have been killed in the conflict.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference on Monday that calling for a ceasefire “is a call for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism, to surrender to barbarism.” “That’s not going to happen”, “This is a time for war.” Netanyahu said

Since the surprise attack by Hamas on October 7th caught the Israeli government off guard, more and more people have called on Netanyahu to resign, but he has rejected such calls.

Gaza situation ‘collapses’

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), told the UN Security Council on Monday that Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza was “collective punishment” for all Palestinians . Lazzarini said “basic services are collapsing” in Gaza, with medicines, food, water and fuel running out and streets overflowing with sewage.

He said the weekend shutdown of communications networks in Gaza following last week’s bombardment had “increased the panic and suffering of the population” and “accelerated the breakdown of civil order”. Lazzarini said thousands of desperate people stormed UNRWA’s warehouses and distribution centers where humanitarian supplies from Egypt were stored.

Lazzarini told the Security Council that 64 UNRWA colleagues had been killed in Gaza over the past three weeks, including the central region’s security chief, who along with his wife and eight others were killed hours before the Council met. Beat to death.

UNRWA said on Tuesday that three more of its staff had been killed in ongoing air strikes, bringing the number of people killed at the agency since October 7 to 67.

A female Israeli soldier was rescued and Hamas released hostage video.

The Israeli military said on Monday that a female soldier held by Hamas was rescued during a ground operation that day. The IDF said she was Private Ori Megidish and was in good condition and had been reunited with her family.

Hamas released a video on Monday showing three hostages. Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a written statement that the three hostages were Elena Trupanov, Daniel Aloni and Limon Kisht. Rimon Kirsht). The three of them sat side by side in a bare room as Aloni delivered an angry speech to Netanyahu, criticizing Israel’s response to the hostage crisis and demanding he release Hamas prisoners in exchange for the release of the hostages.

Netanyahu denounced the video as “cruel psychological propaganda.”

Israel says the current number of hostages kidnapped during Hamas terror attacks stands at 240.

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