New Delhi, November 2
Plumes of smoke rose from all across Gaza as the Israeli bombardment continued on Thursday with the Palestinian toll rising to over 9,000, even as the Israeli Defense Forces claimed to have broken through Hamas’s front lines of defence after five days in which it lost 17 soldiers. An IDF commander told reporters near the Gaza Strip that the army had advanced deep into Gaza and had been at the gates of Gaza City. Over the past five days, “we have destroyed much of Hamas’s capabilities, attacked its strategic facilities, all of its array of explosives, its underground tunnels and other facilities,” he added.
Videos showed Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants using hit-and-run attacks. They were seen emerging suddenly from tunnels, firing mortars at Israeli tanks and disappearing. The other two fronts opened against Israel by Ansarullah or Houthis (Yemen) and Hezbollah (Lebanon) continued harassing the Israeli forces with attacks on their establishments. Over 20 rockets were launched simultaneously by Hezbollah from Lebanon but more crucial is the much-awaited speech by its chief Hassan Nasrallah scheduled for Friday. More formidable than Hamas, Hezbollah has maintained a calibrated policy of limited aggression against Israel in which 50 of its fighters have been killed since the war began on October 7.
The unabated Israeli assault against civilians and militants alike led to Bahrain becoming the first Abraham Accord country to recall its envoy to Israel. Tel Aviv also took a step back by not carrying out its threat to ban Al Jazeera’s operations to avoid undermining its main funder, Qatar’s mediation for the release of Israeli hostages. Intense diplomacy is on the cards as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Tel Aviv on Friday. US President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has again sought a pause in the bombing but not a ceasefire
