Israel said its troops had entered the centre of Gaza City, Hamas' main bastion and the largest city in the strip, while the Islamist group said its fighters had inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy.
Israeli soldiers approach a ruined house in the northern Gaza Strip on November 8. Photo: Reuters
Hamas' armed wing released a video on Wednesday showing fierce street battles next to bombed buildings in Gaza City.
According to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant sources, Israeli tanks encountered heavy resistance from Hamas militants using underground tunnels to lay ambushes.
One clip from a Hamas video released Wednesday shows its fighters running through debris and stopping to fire shoulder-fired rockets at Israeli tanks. Another shows them firing rifles from perches behind buildings and trash cans.
Saleh al-Arouri, an exiled Hamas commander, told Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV that Israeli forces could take control of some areas in Gaza.
"But that will not stop the resistance's fight against soldiers and tanks. The more Israel expands and expands on the ground, the more serious its losses will be," he said.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Wednesday that combat engineers were using explosive devices to destroy a network of Hamas tunnels stretching hundreds of kilometers under Gaza. The military said it had destroyed 130 tunnels so far.
Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying it is using Gazans as human shields and hiding weapons and operations centers in residential areas.
As fighting entered its second month, the Israeli military took foreign reporters to the edge of Gaza City on Wednesday. The journalists saw a devastated scene where every building in sight had been destroyed by the fighting.
About 50,000 Palestinian civilians left the north on Wednesday, Rear Admiral Hagari said. He said they left “because they understood that Hamas had lost control of the north”. But thousands remain in the besieged area.
UN officials and G7 powers are stepping up calls for a humanitarian pause to help ease civilian suffering in Gaza, where essentials including food, medicine and fuel are running low.
Talks brokered by Qatar, where some Hamas political leaders are based, are seeking to secure the release of 10 to 15 hostages in exchange for a one- to two-day humanitarian pause in Gaza, a source briefed on the talks said on Wednesday.
Hoang Anh (according to Reuters, CNN, AJ)
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