LAST UPDATE 12:05
Israel Defense Forces Arabic-speaking spokesman Lt. Col. Avihai Andrae says Israel will reopen a corridor for Gazan civilians in the north of the Strip to escape southward. Andrae wrote to X that Israel will open the Salah al-Din road to southbound traffic between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The previous days saw the corridor open for only four hours.
Yesterday Wednesday almost 50,000 of its residents left Gaza City, always according to the Israeli army.
“Don’t listen to what some Hamas leaders are saying from their hotels abroad or from the underground places they have arranged for themselves and their family members,” warns Adraee. “For your safety, take advantage of the [άνοιγμα του Salah a-Din] to move south beyond Wadi Gaza”.
The IDF has warned that northern Gaza is a battle zone as it moves to target Hamas’ main stronghold in the region.
Israel captured a major Hamas hideout after a 10-hour battle
The Israel Defense Forces say troops from the Nahal Infantry Brigade captured a Hamas stronghold known as Outpost 17 in western Jabaliya after 10 hours of fighting. The IDF says the soldiers fought Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives at the stronghold, who were both “above ground and on an underground route in the area”.
According to the IDF, dozens of terrorists were killed during the fighting. He says troops located several weapons and uncovered tunnels, including one next to a kindergarten that led to an “extensive underground route.” Troops also found “significant” Hamas battle plans at Outpost 17, the IDF added, without providing new information on possible casualties among the troops.
Meanwhile, the IDF says the Air Force has carried out strikes on hundreds of targets in the Gaza Strip in the last day.
A regional commander of Hamas was killed
The IDF has announced that it has killed a senior Hamas commander in charge of the terror group’s anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) operations in central Gaza.
In a joint statement with the Shin Bet security agency, the IDF says Ibrahim Abu-Maghsib was the head of Hamas’ ATGM array in the so-called central camp brigade.
“As part of his position, he directed and conducted numerous anti-tank missile launches directed at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the statement said.
Drone manufacturing factory found
Israeli troops operating in the Gaza Strip located a drone manufacturing factory and a Hamas weapons depot inside a residential building.
The IDF says the building, in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, is next to a school.
Footage shows troops finding several Hamas drones in the building, as well as equipment used to build them and instructions for making explosive devices. He says troops also discovered several bombs at the site. Next to the construction site and weapons depot is a children’s bedroom, the IDF says.
Israeli army says it destroyed 130 Hamas tunnels in Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the military has destroyed 130 Hamas tunnels since the ground offensive in Gaza began: “IDF combat engineers are currently working to uncover and destroy Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the tunnels. Water and oxygen storage discovered inside the tunnels indicate Hamas preparations for extended stays underground,” the IDF said in a statement.
Hostage negotiations
Negotiations are underway for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip alongside a two- to three-day ceasefire, a person familiar with the talks told the German news agency today.
The negotiations are being mediated by Qatar and in consultation with the United States, the source added.
The talks involve “the release of 10 to 15 hostages in exchange for a humanitarian pause of 48 to 72 hours” in the fighting.
Hezbollah warns of regional war if shelling of Gaza continues
Hezbollah’s second-in-command says Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza risks sparking a wider war in the Middle East.
The Shiite Islamist group is the largest political and military force in Lebanon. Speaking in Beirut, Sheikh Naim Kassem told the BBC’s Orla Guerin that “very serious and very dangerous developments could happen in the region and nobody will be able to stop the effects”.
“The danger is real,” he says, “because Israel is increasing its aggression against civilians and killing more women and children. Is it possible for this to continue and increase, without bringing real danger to the region? I think not.”
He insists that any escalation will be linked to Israel’s actions. “Every possibility has a response,” he says.
You will need a “Marshall Plan”
It will take months and something like a “Marshall Plan” for Gaza to recover from the Israeli war, says Nour Odeh, a Palestinian political commentator based in Ramallah.
The Marshall Plan was a massive aid package that the United States sent to Western Europe after World War II. The Gaza Strip, which Odeh says is being “decimated”, will take months of rebuilding to become habitable again.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said his country will have “overall responsibility for security” for the Gaza Strip for an “indefinite period” once the fighting ends, in an interview with US channel ABC News.
“What Netanyahu is doing right now is buying time for himself because he is facing investigations and accountability – even his closest allies in the Israeli media are calling for him to step down because he refuses to take responsibility,” Odeh said in BBC World at One programme.
Without a political framework “from the world”, Odeh said Israeli control of Gaza would only lead to more tensions and was not a vision or plan “for progress in the future”.
“They will grow up to be soldiers”
A terrorist from Hamas’s elite Nuhba Force who was captured by Israel during the October 7 massacre told Shin Bet interrogators that he had received orders to kill Israeli children, Haaretz reports.
“They will grow up and become soldiers,” he explained, according to Haaretz. He went on to justify the beheading of the Israeli victims, saying it was done to “sow fear” into the Israeli public. The terrorist said he did not regret anything he did and said that “in terms of brutality, there is no difference” between the acts carried out by Hamas and those carried out by ISIS, Haaretz reports.
