The Israel Army says that an expanded operation in Gaza City has started: NPR

JERUSALEM – After a night of heavy air strikes, the Israeli army announced on Tuesday that its expanded operations in Gaza City “to destroy Hamas’s military infrastructure” began and warned the residents against moving in the south.

The announcement of the Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adri, Israel Defense Secretary Kataz, followed that “Gaza is burning” and the Israeli war escalated Hamas because any potential endowment feels greater than reach despite weeks of diplomacy.

Also on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio left Israel and arrived in the energy -rich country in Qatar, where he planned to meet the ruler’s prince because the nation is still angry because of the Israel strike last week, which killed five members of Hamas and a local security official.

While the Arab and Muslim countries condemned the strike at the summit of Monday, they stopped any major action targeting Israel, which highlights the challenge of diplomatic pressure on any change in the behavior of Israel in the Israeli war Hamas. However, Egypt began to escalate its language against Israel, referring to it on a large scale on Tuesday as “the enemy” for the first time in years.

Rubio, who was speaking to journalists in Israel before leaving, suggested the attack in Gaza City.

“We think we have a very short window of time that a deal can occur,” said Rubio. “We no longer have months, and we may have days and perhaps a few weeks, so it is an essential moment – an important moment.”

“Our preference, our number one choice, is that this ends by settling negotiations,” he added, while recognizing the dangers posed by an intensive military campaign on Gaza.

“The only worst thing of war is a long -term thing that lasts forever and forever,” said Rubio. “At some point, this must end. At some point, Hamas should be distorted, and we hope this will happen through negotiation. But I think time, unfortunately, runs out.”

The severity of strikes grows in Gaza City

Weeks after the expansion of the Israeli military operation in Gaza City, Katz indicated that it had started.

“Gaza is burning,” he said early on Tuesday morning. “The (Israeli army) is drawn to an iron grip in the terrorist infrastructure and the soldiers are fighting heroic to create the circumstances to launch the hostages and defeat Hamas. We will not review and will not return – until the completion of the mission.”

On Monday, the United Nations estimated that more than 220,000 Palestinians had fled north of Gaza during the past month, after the Israeli army warned that all residents should leave Gaza City before the operation. An estimated one million Palestinians lived in the area surrounding Gaza City before the evacuation warnings.

At least 20 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City

The Palestinian residents reported severe strikes throughout Gaza City on Tuesday morning.

The city’s Shiva Hospital said that he had received the bodies of 20 people who were killed in a blow that struck multiple homes in a western neighborhood, where 90 wounded arrived in the facility in the last hours.

“A very difficult night in Gaza,” Dr. Mohamed Abu Silmier, director of Shiva Hospital, told Associated Press

“The bombing did not stop for a moment,” he said. “There are still bodies under the rubble.”

The Israeli army did not respond to urgent requests to comment on the strikes, but in the past, Hamas was accused of building a military infrastructure inside the civilian areas, especially in Gaza City.

The families of the hostages begged Netanyahu to stop the process

Overnight, the families of the hostages, who are still being held in Gaza, gathered outside the headquarters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and sponsored with him to stop the Gaza City operation.

Some fiery tents and slept out of his house in protest.

“I have one interest – for this country to wake up and return my child along with 47 other hostages, whether they live and deceased, and bring our soldiers home,” Einaf Zangucker, who is holding his son Mattan in Gaza, shouted out of the Netanyahu residence.

“If he stops anything and our brave precious soldiers send to fight while our hostages are used as human shields – he is not prime minister who is worthy of,” Zanguker.

Israel believes that about 20 of 48 hostages are still kept by militants in Gaza, including Matan, alive. Hamas said it will not only liberate the remaining hostages against Palestinian prisoners, a permanent ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

The war began in Gaza when gunmen led by Hamas in southern Israel stormed on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and kidnapped 251. Most of the hostages have been released since then in the arrest of fire by Qatar or other deals.

The retaliation of Israel has killed at least 64,871 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which does not say the number of civilians or fighters. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas -run Hamas government and which is working with medical professionals, says that women and children are about half of the dead.

Egypt ascends its speech against Israel

Egypt, which has concluded peace with Israel for decades, and appears to be an intermediary in the war in Gaza, loses its patience with Israel.

The President of Egypt, Abdel Fahia Al -Sisi, described Israel as an “enemy” in a fiery speech at the Qatar Summit on Monday. This is the first time that an Egyptian leader has used this term since the two countries have established diplomatic relations in 1979.

Egypt was the first Arab country to set relations with Israel and seen the peace treaty as the cornerstone of stability in the volatile region.

“Egypt is threatened,” Rashwan told an additional news television run by the country.

The “enemy” comment for Sisi played prominently through the front pages of Egyptian newspapers on Tuesday, and while Cairo did not take any steps to change its situation with Israel, the Egyptian government is likely to try to indicate the severity of the recent measures of Israel.