GAZA: Israeli troops and tanks attacked Gaza’s main northern city from both sides on Monday, three days after they began a major ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave that has drawn more international appeals for civilians to be protected, Reuters news agency reported.
Israel’s military said it had struck more than 600 militant targets over the past few days as it expanded ground operations in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian civilians are in dire need of fuel, food and clean water as the war enters its fourth week.
Islamist militants said they had repelled an attempted thrust from Israeli tanks into Gaza City from the east and were fighting them on the border with Israel.
“Our duty today is fight and fight,” the Islamic Jihad militant group, fighting alongside Gaza’s ruling Hamas, said in a statement, adding that now was not the time for a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said it had killed four prominent Hamas operatives. “IDF troops killed dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels, and attempted to attack the troops,” it said in an update.
Neither side commented on the other’s reports.
Israel renewed warnings for civilians to move from the north of the tiny, densely populated enclave to the south as it began an advance into Gaza late on Friday to pursue Hamas militants it says are hiding in a labyrinth of tunnels under Gaza City.
Many Palestinians have stayed put for fear of becoming homeless like previous generations, and alarmed by Israeli aerial strikes further south.
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