Israel said on Tuesday that its forces were operating deep in Gaza City in their battle to wipe out Hamas in the Palestinian enclave and that the Islamist militant group’s leader was trapped inside a bunker.
Gaza residents said earlier that Israeli tanks were positioned on the outskirts of Gaza City, Hamas’s stronghold in the north of the territory and home to about one-third of its 2.3 million people before the hostilities.
Israel previously said it had surrounded Gaza City and would soon attack it to annihilate Hamas fighters who assaulted Israeli towns across the border one month ago.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israeli soldiers were operating in the heart of Gaza City. Hamas’s most senior leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was isolated in his bunker, Gallant said in a televised news conference.
Smoke rises from Gaza following Israeli strikes on Tuesday. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) “came from the north and the south. They stormed it in full co-ordination between land, air and sea forces,” Gallant said.
“They are manoeuvring on foot, armoured vehicles and tanks, along with military engineers from all directions, and they have one target: Hamas terrorists in Gaza, their infrastructure, their commanders, bunkers, communication rooms. They are tightening the noose around Gaza City.”
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He said that below the city there were kilometres of tunnels that ran under schools and hospitals and that housed weapons depots, communication rooms and hideouts for militants.
“Gaza City is encircled, we are operating inside it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement. “We are increasing pressure on Hamas every hour, every day. So far, we have killed thousands of terrorists, above ground and below ground.”
Who can use Hamas’s tunnel system?
4 days ago
Duration 2:41
Featured VideoThis maze of tunnels that runs underneath much of Gaza was built by Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including Canada. For weeks now, the Israel Defense Forces say its airstrikes have been targeting those tunnels. Who is allowed to seek refuge in them?
The Israeli military said Hamas militants fired anti-tank missiles at Israeli forces from nearby hospitals and that soldiers found weapons hidden in a school in northern Gaza.
The military wing of Hamas, which has ruled the small, densely populated enclave for 16 years, said its fighters were inflicting heavy losses and damage on advancing Israeli forces. It had no immediate comment on the possible fate of Sinwar, the Hamas leader.
It was not possible to verify the battlefield claims of either side.
‘Incessant suffering’
The war — the bloodiest episode in the generations-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict — broke out on Oct. 7 when Hamas fighters burst across the fence enclosing Gaza and killed 1,400 Israelis, including several Canadians, and abducted more than 200, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, Israel has bombarded the coastal territory relentlessly, killing more than 10,000 people, about 40 per cent of them children, according to counts by Gaza health officials.
“It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement at the start of a trip to the region.
More civilians flee south as Israeli forces enter Gaza City centre
Featured VideoThe Israeli military says it is now fighting Hamas in the heart of Gaza City. As it pushes forward, more civilians walk the dangerous trip south to avoid the fighting and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu floats the idea of having to reoccupy Gaza after the war ends.
Israel, which is trying to clear out Gaza City, gave residents a window from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time to leave for the southern part of the 45-kilometre long Gaza Strip.
Residents say Israeli tanks have been moving mostly at night, with Israeli forces largely relying on air and artillery strikes to clear a path for their ground advance.
Gaza’s Interior Ministry says 900,000 Palestinians are still sheltering in northern Gaza, including Gaza City.
A Palestinian woman holds a white flag as civilians from Gaza Strip’s north flee toward the south on Tuesday. (Ahmed Zakot/Reuters)
“The most dangerous trip in my life. We saw the tanks from point blank [range]. We saw decomposed body parts. We saw death,” resident Adam Fayez Zeyara posted with a selfie of himself on the road out of Gaza City.
Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, repeated the calls for civilians to move south for their own safety. He also said that after the war was finished, neither Israel nor Hamas would rule Gaza.
Airstrikes, evacuations in south Gaza
While Israel’s military operation is focused on the northern half of Gaza, the south has also come under attack. Palestinian health officials said at least 23 people were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes early on Tuesday in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
“We are civilians,” said Ahmed Ayesh, who was rescued from the rubble of a house in Khan Younis, where health officials said 11 people had been killed. “This is the bravery of the so-called Israel, they show their might and power against civilians, babies inside, kids inside and elderly.”
As he spoke, rescuers at the house used their hands to try to free a girl buried up to her waist in debris.
An injured child is rescued following Israeli bombardment in Rafah on Tuesday. (Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, also in south Gaza, the first cohort of Canadian citizens and family members eligible to leave Gaza gathered at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday morning after receiving a notice from Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
The agency confirmed that 75 Canadians, permanent residents and family members have crossed into Egypt.
Among them was a family from Calgary. Mansour Shouman, a Canadian citizen since 2006, told CBC News that his wife and five children crossed on Tuesday at about 9 a.m. but that he chose to stay to help those still in Gaza.
Israel wants ‘security responsibility’ over Gaza
Both Israel and Hamas have rebuffed mounting calls for a halt in fighting. Israel says hostages should be released first, but Hamas says it will not free them nor stop fighting while Gaza is under attack. Washington has backed Israel’s position that a ceasefire would help Hamas militarily.
Israel has so far been vague about its long-term plans for Gaza, should it succeed in its operation to vanquish Hamas. In some of the first direct comments on the subject, Netanyahu said Israel would seek to have security responsibility for Gaza “for an indefinite period.”
“We’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility,” he told U.S. television’s ABC News.
Israel to have ‘overall security responsibility’ in post-war Gaza for ‘indefinite period’, Netanyahu says
Featured VideoIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, also said no to a general ceasefire in Gaza, but added that ‘tactical, little pauses’ remain a possibility.
Israel pulled its troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005, and two years later, Hamas took power there — driving out the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in a separate, Israeli-occupied territory, the West Bank.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said U.S. President Joe Biden opposed Israeli reoccupation: “It’s not good for Israel, it’s not good for the Israeli people,” Kirby told CNN.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had spoken with leaders in the region about what governance of Gaza could look like after the war, Kirby said: “Whatever it is, it can’t be what it was on Oct. 6. It can’t be Hamas.”
Diplomatic discussions about how Gaza could be ruled after the war have considered the deployment of a multinational force, an interim Palestinian-led administration excluding Hamas, a stopgap security and governance role for neighbouring Arab states, and temporary UN supervision of the enclave, according to a source familiar with the matter.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
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