00:00 Israel said that its ground forces were battling Hamas fighters deep inside Gaza's largest
00:08 city, signalling a major new stage in the month-old conflict.
00:12 The Israeli military was operating in the heart of Gaza City and tightening the noose
00:16 around Hamas, the Palestinian terror outfit which rules the Strip, the country's defence
00:21 minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday.
00:23 Gallant's statement came as the Israeli military said its forces in Gaza began to
00:27 locate and disable Hamas's vast tunnel network underneath the besieged Palestinian enclave.
00:34 Gaza City, the terrorist's largest town and Hamas's main stronghold, is encircled.
00:40 Israel says its troops have advanced to the heart of the city, while Hamas says its fighters
00:45 have inflicted heavy losses on the invading forces.
00:48 Chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that Israel's combat
00:53 engineering corps were using explosive devices to destroy a tunnel network built by Hamas
00:58 that stretches for hundreds of kilometres beneath Gaza.
01:02 Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel had one target - Hamas terrorists in Gaza,
01:08 their infrastructure, their commanders, bunkers, communication rooms.
01:14 Israeli tanks have faced heavy resistance from Hamas fighters using the tunnel network
01:18 to launch ambushes, two sources with Hamas and the separate militant group Islamic Jihad
01:23 said.
01:24 On Tuesday, the IDF said it found more tunnels of Hamas in northern Gaza near a ferris wheel
01:29 and a university.
01:30 Both the tunnels were later destroyed.
01:32 Hamas, which has controlled the coastal enclave since 2007, has built a tunnel city stretching
01:38 beneath Gaza for hundreds of kilometres up to 80 metres deep in parts.
01:42 One hostage held in the network before being freed by Hamas last month described it as
01:46 a "spider's web".
01:48 The Israeli military has said that many of Hamas' tunnels, command centres and rocket
01:52 launchers lie adjacent to schools, hospitals and humanitarian institutions in northern
01:57 Gaza, including the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the region's largest.
02:02 Despite appeals from Washington for a humanitarian pause, the Israeli security sources said the
02:06 presence of troops on the ground inside Gaza City made a temporary cessation of hostilities
02:11 risky and unlikely at this stage.
02:14 Both Israel and Hamas have rebuffed international pressure for a ceasefire.
02:18 Israel says hostages taken by Hamas should be released first.
02:21 Hamas insists it will not free them or stop fighting while Gaza is under assault.
02:27 Since Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages in an October 7 cross-border
02:32 gun rampage, Israel has pounded Gaza from the air and used crowned troops.
02:37 A month of relentless bombardment in Gaza has killed more than 10,300 Palestinians,
02:42 two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
02:45 More than 2,300 are believed buried from strikes that reduced entire city blocks to rubble.
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