(Dan Tri) – Israeli tanks participated in a `targeted raid` overnight in northern Gaza, while the country was preparing its forces for a comprehensive ground attack.
Screenshot of footage released by the Israeli military on October 26 shows a targeted raid in northern Gaza using tanks and infantry.
`Last night, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) conducted a targeted and tank raid in the northern Gaza Strip, as part of preparations for the combat phase
During the raid, Israeli soldiers identified and attacked many Hamas members, this group’s infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch stations.
Previously, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late on October 25 also confirmed that in parallel with the intense bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas, Israel is preparing for a ground attack.
Hamas gunmen from Gaza on October 7 invaded Israel, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 222 others, according to data from Israeli officials.
To date, more than 6,500 Gazans have died in Israel’s retaliatory air attacks, according to data from the Hamas-controlled Gaza health authority.
The raid on October 25 was not the first time Israeli soldiers and tanks entered Gaza to carry out limited raids since October 7.
An Israeli mobile artillery unit opened fire from southern Israel toward the Gaza Strip on October 25 (Photo: AP).
The raid took place after the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned it was running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing the agency to sharply cut back aid operations in the territory.
Gazans are also running out of food, water and medicine.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering evacuations to the south.
In recent days, Israel has sent more than 60 trucks carrying aid from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, but aid workers say this is just a `drop in the ocean`.
Mr. William Schomburg, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, expressed hope that about half a dozen trucks of medical supplies could be brought here.
`This is just a small number compared to what is needed, like a drop in the ocean, considering the severity of the violence over the past two and a half weeks,` Mr. Schomburg said.
Palestinians sit near a damaged car at the site of an Israeli attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 26 (Photo: Reuters).
UNRWA had to share their own fuel depots so trucks could distribute aid, bakeries could make food for people in shelters, hospitals could keep incubators and machines running.
If this situation continues, fuel will run out on October 26.
`Are we for incubators or bakeries?` Ms. Alrrfai said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said more than half of health care facilities in Gaza and about a third of its hospitals have stopped operating.
At al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, shortages of medicine and clean water have led to `alarming` infection rates, Doctors Without Borders said.
According to a surgeon, this person had to amputate half of a 9-year-old boy’s foot using only `a small amount of sedatives` right on the hallway floor in front of the boy’s mother and sister.
Conflict also risks spreading throughout the region.
Attacks in Syria also targeted Aleppo and Damascus airports, apparently aimed at preventing the transfer of weapons from Iran to militant groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.