Israel carried out attacks on Hamas tunnels under the Gaza Strip on Friday. The army reports that 40 tanks and 160 aircraft were used for this. The attacks lasted a total of forty minutes.
The extensive network of tunnels, also known as “the Metro”, is used by Hamas to move people and goods, but it is not clear to what extent these tunnels have been damaged.
Israel’s tanks were on their own territory. The army previously said troops in the Gaza Strip had launched a ground offensive, but a spokesman later said there had been an “internal communication problem”. In the night from Thursday to Friday, rockets were also fired, as in previous days.
At least 119 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is in power. In addition, 830 others have been injured. In Israel, the death toll is eight. Israel had been unsettled for weeks due to a series of incidents between Palestinians and Jews, but the situation got further out of hand on Monday.
The conflict escalated after Hamas rocketed targets in Israel. This happened after clashes between the Israeli police and Palestinian protesters who protested in Jerusalem against the planned expulsion of Palestinian families in the city. Those families have to make way for Jewish settlers.
There are no signs that the most significant conflict between Israel and Hamas since 2014 will diminish in the near term. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the action against Hamas “will take more time” and that the group must be deterred considerably before a ceasefire is reached.