IDF Southern Command commander Yaron Winkelman said Tuesday that the army is fighting a complex, difficult and costly war against the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Finkelman added that the Israeli army is fighting for the first time in decades in the heart of Gaza City, stressing that the Hamas attack on October 7 seriously wounded them, and that the events of that day hurt him greatly.
The IDF failed in its mission on Oct. 7, he said, saying that since that day the war has become clear with its goals of eliminating Hamas and returning detainees, he said.
For its part, the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced that it had repelled attempts by the Israeli army to incursion into the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the ground campaign launched by the occupation, and that it had inflicted human losses and material damage to the occupation.
On Tuesday, al-Qassam said it had destroyed 8 Israeli tanks and a troop carrier, in addition to "shelling the enemy crowds penetrating the Gaza Strip with high-caliber mortars."
The ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip for the 32nd consecutive day resulted in the death of more than 10,300 Palestinians, amid the inability of the Civil Defense to remove those under the rubble, and cut off the supply of water, food, medicine, fuel and electricity to the residents of the Strip.