TUNNEL NETWORK
Israel said on Wednesday its troops had uncovered a tunnel network used by Hamas leaders including Yahya Sinwar, the movement’s Gaza leader.
The military released footage it said showed the “large network” around Gaza City’s Palestine Square linking hideouts and residences.
The army reported close-quarter combat and more than 300 strikes over the past day, while the death toll among its own forces rose to 134 inside Gaza.
An AFPTV live camera on Wednesday filmed two bombs hitting Rafah, where many of the territory’s estimated 1.9 million displaced have fled.
The Hamas health ministry said Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians when houses and a mosque in Rafah “were targeted”.
It said later at least 30 more people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit two houses east of Khan Yunis.
Crowds swarmed the rubble, digging with shovels and a backhoe to try to free the victims. One blackened body lay under a blue blanket on the blood-soaked ground.
“Enough, enough of this. We have lost everything and we can’t take it anymore,” Samar Abu Luli, a woman in Rafah, said after Israeli strikes on the city’s Al-Shabura neighbourhood.
HEZBOLLAH FIGHTING
The war has sparked fears of regional escalation, with exchanges of fire over the Lebanon border, and missiles from Iran-backed Yemeni rebels disrupting Red Sea shipping.
Israel said Wednesday it had struck an “operational command centre” used by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and fired on fighters heading for the Lebanon-Israel border.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who have launched missiles and drones at cargo ships in the Red Sea, warned Wednesday that they would strike back if attacked by US forces.
The warning came after the United States said it was building up a multinational naval task force to protect vessels transiting the Red Sea from Huthi attacks carried out in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Source: CNA
