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War between Israel and Hamas: at the heart of the offensive with the army in Gaza
In Gaza City, fighting continued on Wednesday, November 8, and was intense. The Israeli army says 50,000 civilians have fled the north of the enclave to the south. 20 Heures correspondent Agnès Vahramian was able to enter the Gaza Strip for the first time. Reporting. – (France 2)
Armored bulldozers clear the way for soldiers on foot in the rubble of Beit Hanoun, the northernmost town of the enclave, deserted by civilians and trapped by Hamas.
After weeks of intense bombing, the Israeli army is now advancing on the ground in the north of the Gaza Strip. For the first time since the start of the war, a France Télévisions team was able to enter the Palestinian enclave with Israeli soldiers, and follow their progress in the ruins of Beit Hanoun, the northernmost town in the Gaza Strip.
“We are entering Gaza and we are taking exactly the same route that the terrorists took to come to Israel on October 7.“, testifies France 2 journalist Agnès Vahramian in this report broadcast Wednesday November 8.
Hamas “prepared the ground for our arrival”
The Israeli army asks journalists not to reveal their precise destination. The few kilometers that separate Beit Hanoun from Israel are covered in armored vehicles, like the bulldozers which, on site, open the way for soldiers through the rubble. The city was ravaged by air raids and artillery fire, which destroyed buildings and the layout of the streets, and it was emptied of its inhabitants, while many Gazans fled towards the south of the city. ‘enclave.
“Every two or three buildings, according to our calculations, there are explosives, traps“, says Colonel Ivri Elbaz, who leads a brigade of 3,000 men. Hamas knew that the Israeli army would pass here to enter Gaza. “I was very surprised by the way they had prepared the ground for our arrival,” continues the soldier. He shows the France 2 team a hole in the ground: a Hamas tunnel, he claims, “right in the middle of civilians’ houses”, near a school. Where does this underground path go? The colonel refuses to reveal it.