Gazans
Tel Aviv/New Delhi/Tehran: The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) today said it reopened an evacuation corridor to facilitate the southward movement of civilians in the northern Gaza Strip ” for their own safety”.
The decision to reopen the corridor was taken following Israel’s repeated calls on the residents of Gaza City to evacuate from the area, over the last day and in accordance with set hours by the IDF.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, met with approximately 80 foreign ambassadors, and told them, “There is no substitute for victory. We will defeat Hamas. We will dismantle Hamas. We will offer the people of Gaza and the entire peoples of the Middle East a real future, a future of promise and hope”.
Netanyahu’s office claimed the foreign ambassadors expressed their support for Israel and said that they would work – each one in their own country – so that what occurred on October 7 would never be forgotten.
The IDF ground operations continued in the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli troops claimed they located and exposed evidence of Hamas’ use of civilian compounds for terrorism. During activity by a team of soldiers of the 460th Brigade to locate terrorist infrastructure and clear the area, IDF claimed to have found rocket launch pits in a mosque, which the soldiers destroyed.
In addition, during several activities in the past day, the soldiers found over 50 rockets ready to be launched into Israel from inside a youth movement compound in Northern Gaza.
Moreover, claiming to have identified approximately 30 rocket launches from Lebanon toward northern Israel, IDF said it was responding with artillery fire toward the origin of the launches. Earlier in the day, IDF troops took control of a Hamas compound, struck 450 aerial targets, and killed Hamas commanders in cooperation with the ISA in Gaza.
Overnight, an Israeli Air Force fighter jet, directed by Israel Securities Authority (ISA) and IDF intelligence, killed the Commander of Hamas’ Deir al-Balah Battalion in the Central Camps Brigade, Wael Asefa, who Israel claimed to be responsible for sending Hamas “Nukhba” terrorists into Israeli territory during the massacre on October 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today had a telephone conversation with Iran’s President Dr. Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi and both leaders exchanged views on the “difficult situation” in the West Asia region and Israel-Hamas conflict. Modi expressed “deep concern” at the terrorist incidents, violence and loss of civilian lives. He reiterated India’s longstanding and consistent position on the Israel-Palestine issue. President Raisi shared his assessment of the situation.
Both leaders emphasised the need to prevent escalation, ensuring continued humanitarian aid and early restoration of peace and stability.
Dr Raisi told Modi that Iran supports any global joint effort for an immediate ceasefire, lifting the blockade and providing aid to the oppressed people of Gaza, and emphasised, “The continuation of the killing of the Palestinian people has infuriated all the free nations of the world and this killing will have extra-regional consequences”. He told Modi that the United States as was the “main accomplice of the Zionists in these crimes due to its all-round financial, weapons and intelligence support of the Zionist regime, as well as its veto of Security Council resolutions to end the bombing of Gaza”. He asserted, “The mass killing of the people of Gaza is the most anti-human crime in the 21st century, which must be stopped immediately”. Referring to the killing of about 10,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, “most of whom are women and children”, the Iranian President told the Indian Prime Minister that all independent countries with power and influence in the world should consider this their duty to “prevent this genocide and crime against humanity”.
The leaders also reviewed and positively assessed progress in multifaceted bilateral cooperation. They welcomed the focus and priority accorded to Chabahar port in Iran for improving regional connectivity.
– global bihari bureau
