The Israeli army entered Gaza Strip with tanks and attacked Hamas positions

A major ground raid in the Gaza Strip took place overnight. According to the army radio station, the soldiers were on a mission to attack Hamas targets. They used tanks and armored vehicles. The Israeli press writes that it is the largest land raid to date, with the most forces involved and which has traveled the greatest distance inside the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, the Israeli army announced that its planes hit targets in Lebanon. The action was in response, after a surface-to-air missile was intercepted by anti-aircraft defenses. Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone this morning. They focused on the situation of hostages and foreign nationals to be removed from the Gaza Strip.

Joe Biden insisted on the need for humanitarian aid for civilians in the Gaza Strip. The World Health Organization is asking Hamas to prove the hostages are alive and to release them on humanitarian grounds.

On the other hand, the president of the United States said that he does not trust the death toll, presented daily by the ministry of health in the Gaza Strip. I have no idea whether or not they are telling us the truth, Joe Biden said.

According to the Hamas-controlled authorities, over the past 10 days, Israeli attacks have left more than 6,500 dead and 14-15,000 injured. The Associated Press reports that there are only 350,000 people left in the northern Gaza Strip. Immediately after the Hamas attacks, Israel asked the population to move to the south of the region. According to estimates, it would be more than one million people.

The Israeli army announced on Thursday morning, on its public radio station, that it carried out a “relatively large” incursion into the Gaza Strip overnight to attack Hamas positions. This operation, during which the army posted images on the X platform, was carried out “in preparation for the next stages of the battle”.

It involved ground troops as well as tanks, which hit “several terrorist cells, infrastructure and missile launch points”. The troops have now returned to Israel, the Israeli army says.

The Israeli army announces a strike against Lebanon in response to a missile attack 

The Israeli army also announced on Wednesday evening that its planes struck Lebanon as a retaliatory measure for the launch of a surface-to-air missile, reports AFP. “Recently, the Israeli army’s air defense network intercepted a surface-to-air missile fired from Lebanon at an Israeli army drone,” the army said in a statement. “In response, Israeli military jets struck the source of the launch.” Since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, daily clashes have pitted Lebanese Hezbollah and its allies against Israeli forces on Lebanon’s southern border. These violence left 52 dead on the Lebanese side, including four civilians, 39 Hezbollah fighters and nine from allied organizations, according to a new AFP tally, with Hezbollah announcing the death of two of its members on Wednesday. Four people were killed by the Israeli side.

At least two rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip hit a city in central Israel. One of the explosions affected a block of flats and at least 4 people were injured.

On the other hand, the Hamas announced a new death toll announced by the Hamas: 6,500 people are said to have died in the Gaza Strip, 700 of them in a single day.

Yesterday, only 20 trucks crossed the border with Egypt, far too few for the needs of the more than two million inhabitants of the enclave.

EU leaders analyze the request for a “humanitarian pause” in Gaza 

European Union leaders will debate on Thursday a call for a “humanitarian pause” in the war between Israel and Hamas. The 27-nation bloc has long been divided between more pro-Palestinian members, such as Ireland and Spain, and staunch supporters of Israel, including Germany and Austria.

After several days of negotiations, a draft declaration for the summit called for “continuous, rapid, secure and unfettered humanitarian access, as well as aid to reach those in need, through all necessary measures, including a humanitarian pause”. This statement – which could undergo changes when the leaders meet in Brussels – does not live up to the demands of the United Nations for a “ceasefire”.

Germany, wary of calling for a more definitive halt that could tie Israel’s hands, suggested calls for humanitarian “windows” or “pauses”. “Letters, commas, language matter and that’s how agreements are found,” said a senior EU official.

But diplomats in some EU nations warn that delays in finding the right words, as the death toll mounts, are hurting the bloc’s global standing and leaving it reeling from developments.

Iran accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza 

Iran on Wednesday accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as Israel stepped up its attacks on the Palestinian territory in response to a bloody attack by Hamas on its territory in October 7, reports AFP.

“The attacks of the Zionist regime have reached such an intensity that it seems that the objective is the massacre of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a letter addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk.

“The statements of the authorities of the Israeli regime and the large-scale and systematic attacks of the Zionist forces in the Gaza Strip show that it is a campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people,” accused the head of Iranian diplomacy.

Also on Wednesday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s highest authority, accused the United States of “somehow directing” Israel’s operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and decreed that the “Palestinian nation” would emerge “victorious” from the conflict.