The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Friday uploaded a video of its K-9 Unit uncovering a multi-level tunnel network used by the Hamas militant group in Gaza City, which it says was used for storage, hideouts, command and control and movement of operatives between different areas.
"A tunnel route—used as an underground base by the Hamas terrorist organization—was uncovered by our troops beneath the area of Issa within Gaza City. This multi-level structure served as an underground post—for storage, hideouts, command and control, and movement of operatives between different areas—and has since been destroyed by troops," said the IDF on a post on X.
Earlier, Israeli troops had uncovered Hamas' largest tunnel so far, only 400 metres from the Erez humanitarian crossing. The four-kilometre-long and 50-metre-deep tunnel was established by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar's brother Mohammed Sinwar, claimed IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari.
"The terrorist tunnel split into branches of smaller tunnels and reaches only 400 metres from the Erez crossing. It was used to enable the underground transport of vehicles, movement of terrorists and logistics of Hamas arms, rockets and explosives," Hagari said in a video uploaded by the IDF.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops eliminated several Hamas militants by luring them into a building that serves as a headquarters for the group and directed an airstrike on it. They also directed airstrikes on an 'armed terrorist cell' in Gaza City and three militants on the outskirts of al-Shati.
War continues
As the war entered its third month, airstrikes, artillery bombardments and fighting were reported across Gaza late into Friday night, as hopes for an imminent breakthrough in talks in Egypt for a new truce between Israel and Hamas dimmed. Israel's military ordered residents of Al-Bureij, in central Gaza, to move south immediately, signalling a new focus on the ground assault.
In the south, at least four civilians died in an air strike on a car in Rafah, a Palestinian rescue worker said. A boy, his face covered in blood, and a girl, were carried away, video showed. "Israel's indiscriminate strikes on Gaza have turned the north of the Strip into a pile of rubble. In Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, south Gaza, the dead and wounded continue to arrive almost every day... Nowhere is safe," said medical charity organisation MSF.
Doctors and medical staff have claimed that Israeli soldiers desecrated the bodies of dead patients with bulldozers and shot multiple doctors even after checking them for terror links, CNN reported. “The soldiers dug up the graves this morning and dragged the bodies with bulldozers, then crushed the bodies with the bulldozers. I have never seen such a thing before,” said a hospital’s head of pediatric services, Hossam Abu Safiya.
Israel’s war to destroy Hamas has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, health officials in Gaza said Friday, as Israel expanded its offensive and ordered tens of thousands more people to leave their homes. The deaths in Gaza amount to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population, causing an international alarm and calls for a ceasefire and 85% of the population has been displaced.
UN passes resolution on humanitarian aid
The UN Security Council on Friday adopted a watered-down resolution to increase humanitarian aid to war-torn Gaza, but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire after several days of delays and intense negotiations to avoid a veto by the United States. At least 13 out of the 15-member council voted in favour of the resolution, with the US and Russia abstaining.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s UN ambassador, said that the Security Council should have focused more on freeing the hostages and that concentrating on “aid mechanisms” was unnecessary as Israel permits “aid deliveries at the required scale.”
Hamas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority split over the measure, with the former saying it was “insufficient” to meet the besieged territory’s needs and defied international calls for an end to “Israel’s aggression”, while the Authority praised it as a step to “end the aggression, ensure the arrival of aid and protect the Palestinian people."
Israel says 5,405 aid trucks - bearing food, water and medical supplies - have entered Gaza since the war started. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused Israel of “creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian assistance” in Gaza.
(with inputs from agencies)
ALSO READ | Israel-Hamas war: UNSC adopts watered-down resolution to boost humanitarian aid in Gaza, US abstains
