Israeli troops battle in Gaza as airstrike draws conflicting claims

Jerusalem: Israeli troops and tanks fought their way deeper into the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to Israeli and Gaza officials, who described battles with Hamas fighters and troop movements drawing closer to the territory's main city and the warren of tunnels beneath it.

The Israeli military said it had attacked a base of Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, and "eliminated dozens of terrorists, anti-tank launching squads, anti-tank launching positions" and observation posts, and had "seized many weapons, including explosives." The claims could not be immediately verified.

The two sides gave conflicting accounts of a deadly Israeli airstrike in the Jabaliya community north of Gaza City, site of a long-established and densely populated refugee camp, where photographs taken on Tuesday showed at least one large blast crater that was not present in earlier satellite images, and significant damage to buildings.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said that the strike had killed and wounded hundreds of people. Dr. Marwan Sultan, medical director of the nearby Indonesian Hospital, said there were dozens dead and his facility had received hundreds of injured patients. The figures could not be verified.

The Israeli military said the strike had killed a Hamas commander who was a key plotter of the October 7 assault on Israel that Israeli authorities say killed more than 1,400 people and captured more than 200 hostages. It described "a wide-scale strike" on targets "belonging to the Central Jabaliya Battalion." The statement said that Hamas had "taken control over civilian buildings," that its strike had killed "a large number of terrorists" and that it had collapsed "underground terror infrastructure."

Hamas denied that any of its commanders were in the area of the strike.

The Gaza Interior Ministry reported that Israeli forces were present in Al Karama, another neighborhood north of Gaza City, and on Salah al-Din Street, the strip's main north-south highway. It added that Israeli troops were trying to reach Al-Rasheed Street, a coastal highway, "as they seek to separate the northern Gaza Strip from its south."

Photos, satellite images and videos, verified by The New York Times, appeared to back up the descriptions of Israeli troops nearing Gaza City: They showed formations of troops and armored vehicles approaching Gaza City and nearby population centers from the north, east and south.

Israeli leaders, who have vowed to destroy Hamas, have not disclosed their strategy for doing so. And the military has so far conducted its ground invasion under a shroud of secrecy -- even as it bombards Gaza with relentless airstrikes and artillery shells.

Israel ordered the evacuation of more than 1 million people from northern Gaza less than a week after the war began, seeming to signal it would soon send in troops. But it was not until last Friday, more than two weeks later, that the ground invasion began -- what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the next day as the "second stage" of the war.

Israeli forces appeared to be slowly closing in around Gaza City, the largest and densest city of the tiny, impoverished enclave, where Israeli and Western officials say that Hamas has fighters, command centers and weapons caches both among the civilian centers of the city and in a vast network of underground tunnels and chambers beneath the city. It is not clear whether the Israelis intend to besiege the city or enter in force to root out Hamas, which would likely cost far more Israeli casualties than its military has suffered so far.

An unknown number of civilians also remain in the city, facing both the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza -- with dwindling medicine, food, clean water and fuel -- and the prospect of chaotic and vicious urban combat.

It remains unclear to what extent Israeli troops have entered Hamas' tunnels, where Palestinian armed groups are also thought to be holding hundreds of people who were abducted when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.

Although Israeli forces rescued a soldier on Monday and Hamas has released four hostages, the number of people believed to be captured has steadily increased over the past three weeks. On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had notified the families of 240 people who were kidnapped on October 7 and are still being held in Gaza.

Although Israeli leaders have said little about their ultimate plans for Gaza, they have repeatedly told the Israeli public that the war is far from over. Netanyahu has repeatedly said it would be a "long and difficult" campaign, and on Monday evening ruled out a cease-fire to allow aid for civilians into Gaza, arguing that a pause would strengthen Hamas.

On Tuesday, Israel's national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, told reporters in Tel Aviv that the authorities were making plans for "the day after Hamas," although they were far from achieving that goal.

"We are working on it, a long list of agencies are working on it. Every security body was asked to put forward thoughts for discussions," he said. "But let's not deceive ourselves -- the 'day after' is not close."

Hamas leaders have struck a defiant tone in the face of Israel's ground invasion, and the group has continued to fire rockets from Gaza toward Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv. Israel's emergency service said that four people were wounded after two rockets fell in the southern city of Ashdod, including one who is in critical condition. Hamas' military wing took responsibility for the attack, and said it came in response to Israel's "targeting of civilians."

Netanyahu's rejection of a cease-fire came in response to growing international criticism for civilian deaths in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there. The fighting has killed more than 8,500 people in Gaza, including more than 3,500 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, displaced more than 1 million, and drawn outcry from aid groups and the United Nations.

"Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It's a living hell for everyone else," the UN children's agency, UNICEF, said in a statement reiterating calls for an immediate cease-fire.

Israeli official say the military's intense bombardment is targeting Hamas fighters, command posts and depots, which are embedded among and below Gaza's neighborhoods. Israel has struck sites such as apartment buildings, mosques and markets, calling them legitimate targets; Netanyahu said on Monday that civilian casualties were unintentional but inevitable.

The United States has been emphatic in its support for Israel, and has stood apart from much of the world in not criticizing Israel's conduct of the war. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a U.S. Senate committee on Tuesday that a cease-fire in Gaza was off the table for now because that would give Hamas a chance to regroup "and potentially repeat what it did" and "that's not tolerable."

But the Biden administration, too, has urged Israel to exercise caution, to try to prevent civilian casualties -- and to allow more time for negotiations over people held hostage in Gaza. Blinken said the United States was urging Israel "to consider things like humanitarian pauses so assistance can get to those who need it."

Israel has refused to allow fuel into Gaza along with emergency shipments of food and medicine, saying that it would fall into the hands of Hamas, which already has a large stockpile. The lack of fuel to generate electricity has forced hospitals, water desalination plants and other vital services to shut down.

The Biden administration opposes that restriction, and believes that fuel should be allowed to reach Gaza. "We understand where the concerns are coming from," John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said on Tuesday. "Our argument is it is also a legitimate need for the innocent civilians in Gaza who are suffering."

US officials have repeatedly tried to prevent the war from spreading, especially to Israel's border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah has clashed repeatedly with Israel in recent days.

Hanegbi, the Israeli national security adviser, said that Israeli forces had adopted a "defensive" posture along the border with Lebanon in order "to not serve our enemy's goal, which is to stretch our forces across several fronts."