By Athena Papakosta

“For the first time (…) the Israel Defense Forces are fighting in heart of Gaza Citysaid Lt. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, commander of the IDF’s Southern Command, and the Israel-Hamas war has now entered its next phase.

The target is the network of underground tunnels and the administration structures of Hamas, while experts respond that the new operation may take months to complete with the already high death toll expected to increase further. After all, there have also been previous statements by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about the “indefinite” assumption of “total responsibility for security” in Gaza which “show” the uncertain end of the war which for Tel Aviv will be “long and difficult”.

Israel’s ground forces have been fighting Hamas inside the Gaza Strip for more than a week, cutting the area in half.

Speaking to reporters, the spokesman for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, said that the Israeli ground forces “are in a ground operation in the depths of Gaza City, putting more pressure on Hamas”, while earlier the Prime Minister of Israel stressed that great progress was being made with the Israeli army to have neutralized thousands of militants from the Islamist Palestinian organization, as Israel counts 30 dead soldiers since the start of its ground operation.

In the images recorded and broadcast by the international news networks, families of civilians holding white scarves or raising their hands were leaving Gaza City yesterday, Tuesday, even on donkeys. Israeli forces had opened a four-hour window for those still inside Gaza City to leave. “We saw the tanks up close. We saw decaying human limbs. We saw death,” said Adam Fayez Zeyara.

But the shelling continues in the south as houses were destroyed yesterday in Khan Younis and the Associated Press broadcast images of rescue workers pulling bodies from the rubble, including at least three children. There was also shelling in Deir Al Ballah with a mother running after men who pulled her injured daughter away from the rubble.

At the same time, according to a report by the news site Axios, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, proposed on Monday to Benjamin Netanyahu a “three-day ceasefire” so that Hamas would agree to release more hostages. The White House noted that it does not comment on the American president’s private conversations, while the Israeli prime minister clarified in a new televised message that “Israel will not stop” repeating that “there will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages.”

So far, at least 10,300 Palestinians are dead, two-thirds of them women and children. In fact, the representative of the World Health Organization, Christian Lindmeier, reported that every day that passes 160 children lose their lives in Gaza…