The Israeli army announced that it had “completed the encirclement of Gaza City”, a week after the start of its ground operation in the Palestinian territory.
The escalation in the Middle East continues. The war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its 27th day on Thursday November 2, was triggered by the bloody attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip which it controls. In retaliation, the Israeli army is relentlessly bombing this completely besieged territory where 2.4 million Palestinians are crowded together, and has been carrying out increasingly in-depth ground operations there for almost a week. Here’s what to remember from the day.
The Gaza Strip “surrounded” by the Israeli army
The Israeli army announced Thursday evening that it had “completed the encirclement of Gaza City”, a week after the start of its ground operation in the Palestinian territory. She had earlier declared that troops “seeped deeper and deeper” in areas held by Hamas, reporting fighting “close together”.
On the Palestinian side, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad also reported “very close fights”. Hamas’ military wing warned Israel that Gaza would be its “curse.”
A new Israeli bombardment on the Jabaliya camp
The Hamas government announced that at least 27 people were killed in an Israeli strike near a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp, the third bombing on the camp in three days. Strikes Tuesday and Wednesday on the Jabaliya camp, the largest in the Gaza Strip, left 195 dead, 777 injured and 120 missing under the rubble, according to Hamas. These reports could not be independently verified. According to Israel, Tuesday’s bombing made it possible to“eliminate” a senior Hamas leader.
Rising tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli border
The Israeli army announced Thursday evening that it had carried out a “vast strike” against the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah in response to several attacks from Lebanon earlier in the day. Rocket fire injured two people in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, according to Israeli emergency services. Hezbollah, for its part, claimed to have attacked simultaneously “19 military positions and sites” Israelis.
Many hospitals closed in Gaza
According to the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), 14 hospitals out of 36 in the Gaza Strip are no longer functioning, due to the war and lack of fuel, as well as two specialized medical centers. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added that WHO continues to demand a “humanitarian ceasefire”speaking of a situation “indescribable” and denouncing multiple obstacles limiting the arrival of aid.