Gaza City fenced in as Hamas under fire

PM Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to organise humanitarian corridors so more residents can move south of the conflict.

People search through buildings destroyed during Israeli air raids on Khan Yunis on Saturday. Picture: Getty Images

The Israeli military has pushed deeper into Hamas territory while completing the encirclement of Gaza City, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting calls for a ceasefire but agreeing to organise humanitarian corridors so more residents can move south of the conflict.

As the war enters its fifth week, Mr Netanyahu faces increased pressure for a “pause” in Israel’s conflict with Hamas after a weekend visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met Israeli government officials and attended a strategic briefing with the country’s six-member war cabinet.

A humanitarian corridor was scheduled to be reopened in Gaza for four hours on Sunday night (AEDT) along the arterial Salah al-Din Rd running through the centre of the territory. The same was attempted one day earlier for residents who had yet to move south of the fighting, but the Israel Defence Forces said Hamas endangered the passage with mortar fire and anti-tank missiles aimed at Israeli soldiers who had opened the route.

Hassan Nasrallah delivers his long-awaited address overnight on Friday. Picture: AFP

Hamas has reportedly been preventing residents of northern Gaza from heading south of the conflict, with accounts emerging of road blocks, intimidation and ­violence being deployed to keep civilians in place. The IDF said the terrorist group “exploits the Gazan population and prevents them from acting in the interest of their own safety”.

The ground operation in Gaza has so far been concentrated in the northern section of the territory but the IDF mounted at least one mission in the south over the weekend using its armoured and engineering corps. The objective was to map buildings and neutralise explosives, and the IDF said a terrorist cell was neutralised when targets were found leaving a tunnel shaft.

Stories of daring street battles are beginning to trickle out, including an encounter on Thursday in which members of the IDF’s Golani brigade were overrun by dozens of Hamas militants. In response, the soldiers retreated to nearby armoured personnel carriers in a practised manoeuvre, then ordered backup forces to fire at their vehicles while the terrorists advanced and climbed on the APCs, eliminating the threat while the troops ­remained protected from the shelling. An airstrike was then ordered for just 230m away to knock out ­observation posts and a second wave of attack, according to the ­account provided to local media.

Huge plumes of smoke rise over Khan Yunis as seen from the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday vowed the army was in the process of tracking Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, released from an Israeli jail during a prisoner swap in 2011, and sooner or later would eliminate him. “I tell the residents of Gaza – if you reach him before us, it will shorten the war,” he said.

Mr Gallant said 12 Hamas battalion leaders had been removed, with military chief Mohammed Deif named as another top IDF target. Both Deif and Sinwar are thought to be hiding in a network of tunnels buried so deep under the city that they’re likely to withstand any aerial assault.

Along the northern border, skirmishes continue between Israeli troops and Hezbollah cells in southern Lebanon, with both sides appearing to take care not to provoke each other into a full-scale war. Late on Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a widely anticipated address in which he hinted that a wider regional conflict was possible, but stopped short of saying he would enter the fray.

“For those who say that Hezbollah should start a war in the entire region, I say wait. These are the beginnings. More actions will be taken against Israel from several different fronts and this issue will become more obvious in the next few days,” he said. “Israel fears that this front could snowball toward a regional war, and this scenario is realistic and could definitely happen.”

Mr Gallant visited the northern region in the aftermath of those ­remarks and said that while Israel had no interest in going to war with Hezbollah, the bulk of its air forces remained on standby should they be required.

He also issued a warning, saying: “If Nasrallah makes the same mistake as Sinwar and drags Hezbollah into a war, this will have far-reaching effects on Lebanon. It will determine Lebanon’s fate.”