Jerusalem: Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Thursday said that the Israeli forces continue to advance in Gaza as per plan.
“The IDF continues to advance in the Gaza City, conducting face-to-face battles with Hamas and deepening the fighting. The battle is progressing as we have planned,” IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.
Israeli forces launched an expanded ground invasion on last Friday calling it the “2nd stage” of war against Hamas and have since made “significant” advances into the Gaza.
“We are located at the gates of Gaza City,” said Brig General Itzik Cohen, commander of the 162nd Armored Division.
Meanwhile, US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said that about 400 U.S citizens are seeking to leave the territory immediately, taking the total to more than 1,000 if you included their family members also, USA Today reported.
On Wednesday, the officials from Australia, Bulgaria, France, the U.K. and the U.S announced the first list of their nationals who left Gaza via Rafah border to Egypt.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that as of Thursday at least 33 journalists have been killed in Israeli bombing.
On Wednesday, the U.N reported that so far 227 aid trucks have been allowed into Gaza since the borders opened between Gaza and Rafa which included 10 trucks carrying water, food and medicine.
The U.N said that the expanded Israeli ground operations have complicated an already complex situation cutting off Gaza and northern Gaza from the rest of the strip, preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the south to some 300,000 internally displaced persons in the north.
Meanwhile, the connectivity was gradually being restored in Gaza. Internet and communication services have been repeatedly interrupted in Gaza and humanitarian aid agencies have warned that blackouts severely disrupt their work, media reports said.
Hamas Health Ministry has said that the Palestinian death toll has reached 8,805 while the West Bank authorities have confirmed the killing of 130 Palestinians in West Bank by Israeli forces.
Also 1,400 Israelis have died most of them civilians in the first hours of the October 7 Hamas attack, the Israeli authorities said.
As per the U.N Humanitarian Coordination Affairs Office, in Gaza, at least 3,648 children and 2,187 women have been killed while over 22,240 Palestinians have been injured by the Israeli soldiers.
On Tuesday, the Israeli airstrikes pounded the Jabaliya refugee camp and allegedly killed a “key” Hamas figure. It drew the ire of the U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose spokesperson said he is “is appalled over the escalating violence in Gaza,” including the killing of Palestinians by Israeli airstrikes.
“He condemns the attack in strongest terms, any killings of civilians,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
(IANS)
