GAZA/JERUSALEM—Israeli tanks and troops pressed toward Gaza City on Nov. 2 but met fierce resistance from Hamas terrorists using mortars and hit-and-run attacks from tunnels as the Palestinian death toll from nearly four weeks of bombardments mounted.
The war is closing in on the Gaza Strip’s main population center in the north, where Israel has been telling people to evacuate as it vows to annihilate the terrorist group.
“We are at the gates of Gaza City,” Israeli military commander Brigadier General Itzik Cohen said.
Terrorists of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad were emerging from tunnels to fire at tanks, then disappearing back into the network, residents said and videos from both groups showed, in guerrilla-style operations against a far more powerful army.
“They never stopped bombing Gaza City all night, the house never stopped shaking,” said one man living there, asking not to be identified by name. “But in the morning, we discover the Israeli forces are still outside the city, in the outskirts, and that means the resistance is heavier than they expected.”
Aware of the difficulties of fighting in an urban environment, Israeli officers’ strategy appears for now to be concentrating large forces in the northern Gaza Strip rather than launching a ground assault on the entire territory.
The latest war in the decades-old conflict began when Hamas gunmen broke through the border on Oct. 7. More than 1,400 Israelis were massacred, mostly civilians including children and elderly people, and more than 200 hostages were taken back to Gaza, in the deadliest day of Israel’s 75-year history.
Israel’s ensuing bombardment of the Palestinian enclave of 2.3 million people has killed at least 8,796 people, including 3,648 children, according to Gaza health authorities who operate under the control of Hamas.
‘Hitting Hamas Wherever It Is Found’
The south of Gaza wasn’t spared either, with three Palestinians dead from tank shelling near the town of Khan Younis, according to Gaza health officials.Brig. Gen. Iddo Mizrahi, chief of Israel’s military engineers, said troops were in the first stage of opening access routes in Gaza but were encountering mines and booby-traps. “Hamas has learned and prepared itself well.”
With Secretary of State Antony Blinken again en route to the region after saying the United States and others were looking at options for Gaza’s future, Hamas blasted outside meddling.
After a total blockade of Gaza for more than three weeks, foreign passport-holders and some wounded were allowed out at the southern end. Palestinian border official Wael Abu Mehsen said 400 foreign citizens would leave for Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Nov. 2, after some 320 on Nov. 1.
Dozens of critically injured Palestinians were to cross, too.
Israel’s latest strikes have included the heavily populated area of Jabalia, which was set up as a refugee camp in 1948.
Gaza’s Hamas-run media office said at least 195 Palestinians were killed in the two hits on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, with 120 missing and at least 777 people hurt.
Israel, which accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields, said it killed two Hamas terrorist leaders in Jabalia.
“We are fighting on all fronts and hitting Hamas wherever it is found,” Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said, warning of a long and complex fight. “We will hunt them down through night and day, in their cities and in their beds.”
Israel says it has lost 18 soldiers and killed dozens of terrorists since ground operations were expanded on Oct. 27.
Violence has also spread to the occupied West Bank, with Israeli raids touching off confrontations with gunmen and people throwing stones.
Palestinian medics and the health ministry said three teenagers and a 25-year-old were killed there in clashes on Nov. 2. Israel’s army had no immediate comment.
Separately, the military and medics said Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli motorist in the West Bank.
Hospitals ‘Beyond Catastrophic’
Gazans are suffering shortages of food, fuel, drinking water, and medicine.Hospitals, including Gaza’s only cancer hospital, are struggling due to fuel shortages.
“The situation is beyond catastrophic in the hospitals in Gaza,” said the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, describing packed corridors, dwindling fuel, refugees in the courtyard, and many medics themselves having lost homes and loved ones.
Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Gaza health ministry, said the main power generator at the Indonesian Hospital was no longer functioning. The hospital was switching to a back-up generator but would no longer be able to power mortuary refrigerators and oxygen generators.
The United Arab Emirates offered to treat 1,000 children accompanied by families, while Turkey offered to take cancer patients from Gaza’s Turkish–Palestinian Friendship hospital, which went out of service after running out of fuel.
An Israeli military spokesman said on Nov. 1 that Hamas is using fuel from the hospitals.
