6 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank

After more than 60 days of devastating bombardment on the Gaza Strip, causing thousands of deaths among civilians as well as Hamas members, and tens of thousands wounded, and with growing international pressure to stop the war, the Israeli army is still far from achieving its declared goals, and is paying a significant price in life. His soldiers. Although it has tremendous power, huge and advanced weapons, and means that reach the pinnacle of what was invented in the science of developing high-tech weapons, it faces strong resistance from Hamas elements and many major surprises.

In light of the intensification of battles in the Gaza Strip, Hamas said on Friday that Israel bombed the medieval Omari Mosque in Gaza, causing widespread destruction of the building, and described this as a “heinous barbaric crime.” She added in a statement reported by Reuters that Israel targeted “most of the historical monuments in the Gaza Strip, including the ancient mosques and historical churches that stood as witness to the nobility of this great people,” including the destruction of 104 mosques and 3 historic churches.

Pictures published by Hamas-run media in Gaza, whose authenticity Reuters could not immediately verify, showed severe damage to the mosque, with walls and ceilings falling and a large crack in the lower part of the stone minaret.

Al-Omari Mosque, named after the second caliph in the history of Islam, Omar bin Al-Khattab, is the oldest and largest mosque in the Gaza Strip.

The bombing of the mosque coincided with violent battles between the Israeli army and Palestinian faction fighters. After the Israelis focused their ground attack against Hamas in the first phase in northern Gaza, they expanded their operations in recent days to the south of the Strip.

The Israeli army announced on Friday that it had “struck 450 targets” in Gaza in land, air and sea operations, killing “many terrorists.” In the north of the city of Khan Yunis (south), bombing operations carried out by the Israeli army shook the Al-Katibah neighborhood, according to what was reported by an Agence France-Presse correspondent, who indicated that the Israeli army had announced, on Thursday, that it had found an arsenal at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City ( North) and on a tunnel linking it to a school “one kilometer away.”

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades said on Friday that a number of Israeli prisoners were killed or wounded in the Israeli bombing of areas in Gaza City. Al-Qassam announced in the morning that a captured Israeli soldier in Gaza had died in clashes that broke out following an attempt by the Israeli army to release him.

On Friday, the army acknowledged that there had been casualties from “friendly fire” during the Gaza battles. A military helicopter bombed a house in Gaza that contained Israeli soldiers, killing at least one soldier. Reports also indicate that soldiers from the elite forces and “commandos” were ambushed by Hamas members, as happened in the division in which Gil Eisenkot, the son of the former army chief of staff and member of the government’s War Command Council, Gadi Eisenkot, was killed, who received condolences from senior officials. Government and opposition leaders during the burial of his son, Friday.

The military correspondent for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Yossi Yehoshua, who accompanied the forces in Gaza, wrote that “so far there have been thousands of tactical victories over (Hamas), and a strategic victory is still missing.” He said: “The initial ground invasion passed successfully despite the fear about the capabilities of the ground army, and the army arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital, a place where few believed that the forces would enter its doors. Gaza City was occupied, and despite the ceasefire, the army returned to fighting in force. Now the army is focusing on three efforts: in Shuja’iya, in Jabalia and in Khan Yunis, where Spearhead Unit 98 is operating. As of Thursday, these two neighborhoods have not yet fallen, and the fighting there is fierce, but it is progressing. We are talking about two Hamas battalions that inflicted the greatest harm on the residents of the Gaza Strip, and have been preparing for many years to enter the Israeli army. In Jabalia also, an image was realized that should be inscribed in the consciousness, in an exceptional documentation that has not been witnessed so far in the war: many dozens of people suspected of participating in terrorism raise their hands, possibly after some of them surrendered and surrendered themselves to the Israeli army forces, in addition to In addition, our forces killed hundreds of terrorists in the two neighborhoods.”

He continued: “The Golani Brigade, the Paratroopers, the Kfir Brigade, the 188th Brigade, and the Engineering Brigade are fighting in face-to-face battles, and they show clear superiority over the enemy. There are dead and wounded, but in the face of the challenge it is difficult to see another army in the world that would have achieved better results in fighting above ground and mainly underground.”

Nahum Barnea wrote in the same newspaper: “The army leadership is not satisfied with stopping the fighting at the current point in time, without achieving a resolution, without achievements that can be boasted of even after the dust of the battle settles. From a military perspective, the ground attack on the Khan Yunis front is a painful last chance. From Khan Yunis to the south there is no longer there, where do we go? No to Hamas, no to the Israeli army, no to the million and a half Palestinians who were displaced from their homes. Boasting that the army is besieging the home of Sinwar (the leader of Hamas in Gaza) is a story that our prime minister tells himself, and tells it to us. The fighting is harmful, and every day it causes deaths by Hamas fire, IEDs, and friendly fire.”

He added: “It would be good if the fighting in Khan Yunis led to the real dismantling of Hamas and the liquidation of its leadership segment. This is a possibility, a hope, a bet; The danger to the lives of the fighters and the lives of the kidnapped is a certainty. (Hamas) is fighting its latest war, including in the north of the Strip, in Beit Lahia, in Shujaiya and in Jabalia, as well as in the south. It launches missiles, produces propaganda films, makes decisions about the fate of the kidnapped (…) Reporters on television channels interested in raising national morale describe them as wretched cowards. I wish they were cowards. If they were cowards, they would have come out of the tunnels en masse, raising their hands and white flags.”