LIVE | Day 21 of Israel-Hamas war: Israel launches second ground raid in Gaza
Israeli forces backed by fighter jets and drones carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days and struck targets on the outskirts of Gaza City, the military said on Friday (October 27), as it prepares for a widely expected ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled territory.
US warplanes meanwhile struck targets in eastern Syria that the Pentagon said were linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard after a string of attacks on US forces by Iran-backed fighters, adding to the already high regional tensions fuelled by the three-week-old Gaza war.
The Palestinian death toll has soared past 7,000 as Israel has carried out waves of devastating airstrikes in response to a bloody Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7. The Health Ministry in Gaza, which tracks the toll, released a detailed list of names and ID numbers on Thursday. The toll includes more than 2,900 minors and more than 1,500 women. More than 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, were slain during the initial Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. Hamas is holding at least 224 captives inside Gaza, including men, women, children and older adults.
The airstrikes have flattened entire neighbourhoods, causing a level of death and destruction unseen in the last four wars between Israel and Hamas. Over a million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to evacuate to the south, despite continuing Israeli strikes across the sealed-off territory.
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UNESCO said that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, more than 200 schools have been damaged in the Gaza Strip — around 40 per cent of all schools there.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that 10 of its staffers, including a combat surgery team, entered Gaza on Friday, along with six trucks of medical aid and water purification tablets.
The medical supplies are enough to treat between 1,000 and 5,000 people, the ICRC said, and the water purification tablets can treat 50,000 litres of water.
This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but it's not enough,” said Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC's regional director.
“Our surgical team and medical supplies will help relieve the extreme pressure on Gaza's doctors and nurses. But safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed.” “This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour,” he said.
Hamas’s West Khan Yunis Battalion commander Madhat Mubasher was killed in an overnight airstrike in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a demolition order for a house owned by senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in 'Arura in the northern West Bank on Friday, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Jerusalem Post reported on Friday.
Apartment buildings are crumpled. Neighbourhoods lie in ruins. The terrain is transformed into moonscape.
The destruction of areas of northern Gaza is visible from space in satellite images taken before and after Israeli's airstrikes, which followed the raids carried out by Hamas militants on October 7.
In images shot by Maxar Technologies, four- and five-story buildings in the Izbat Beit Hanoun neighbourhood are in various states of collapse. Huge chunks are missing from some, others are broken in half, and two large complexes lie in piles of rubble.
The pattern of destruction in the Al Karameh neighbourhood can be traced by a widespread pattern the color of ash.
Tightly packed streets in Beit Hanoun look obliterated, with a rare white structure standing out in the gray wasteland.
With the airstrikes continuing around the clock, the full extent of the damage remains unknown. The satellite photos provide a glimpse of the devastation, particularly in the hard-hit northern Gaza Strip.
The US military launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.
The US strikes reflect the Biden administration’s determination to maintain a delicate balance. The US wants to hit Iranian-backed groups suspected of targeting the US as strongly as possible to deter future aggression, possibly fuelled by Israel’s war against Hamas while also working to avoid inflaming the region and provoking a wider conflict.
All the 27 member countries of the European Union have called for “humanitarian corridors and pauses” in the shelling of Gaza by Israel to allow the supply of food, water and medical supplies to Palestinians.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has claimed that its fighter jets struck down three senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The military said the outfit had played a key role in the Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.
“IDF fighter jets struck 3 senior Hamas operatives in the Daraj Tuffah Battalion. The battalion’s operatives played a significant role in the invasion and murderous attack against Israel on October 7, and is considered to be the most significant brigade of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF posted on its official X handle.