The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says Israeli tanks that advanced near the besieged Gaza Strip were forced to retreat after heavy clashes.
“There’s absolutely no ground advance inside the residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. What happened on Salah al-Din Street was the incursion of a few occupation army tanks and a bulldozer,” said Salama Maarouf, the head of the Hamas office in Gaza, in a statement on Monday.
Salah al-Din Street is located about 3 kilometers from the Gaza fence. Heavy clashes were reported in the area.
“These vehicles targeted two civilian cars on Salah al-Din Street and bulldozed the street before the resistance forced them to retreat.”
“There is currently no presence of occupation army vehicles on Salah al-Din, and citizen movement has returned to normal on the road,” the Hamas statement said.
Hamas fighters also engaged Israeli forces in a border area east of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said Israeli forces trying to enter from the east of Rafah, also in the southern Gaza Strip, were pushed back.
Hamas says Israel’s nonstop airstrikes on the frontlines are proof the Palestinian fighters have the upper hand in the battle. The resistance movement says the regime’s limited ground incursion follows its failure to perform a broad operation.
The Israeli military says it has struck virtually 600 targets in the besieged territory most recently.
Israel has hit areas around Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza, which shelters about 14,000 people.
The Palestinian Red Crescent says it has received serious threats from the regime to immediately evacuate the hospital.
The Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are facing an alarmingly dire humanitarian situation. Yet, the steadfast people are not to leave their homes.
Israel’s war on Gaza entered in its 24th day on Monday. The regime is bombarding the territory from ground, sea and air.
Meanwhile, the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has warned that hindering humanitarian aid into Gaza by Israel could amount to a crime under the court’s jurisdiction.
Gazans are grappling with a severe shortage of food, water, fuel and medicine due to Israel’s complete blockade.
Israeli officials claim those basic needs have been coming in through the Rafah crossing, which is the Egyptian border with Gaza. But Khan says the regime must make discernible efforts to urgently ensure that civilians in Gaza receive food and medicine.
Since 2021, the ICC has been investigating Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territories. The regime has failed to cooperate with the investigation, rejecting the court’s jurisdiction.
Israel has killed more than 8,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians and more than half of them children, since October 7. Over 21,000 others have been injured.
The regime had already been caught off-guard by the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm Hamas fighters conducted on that October day. The operation was a response to Israel’s continuing violations of the rights of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
