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Fighting continues to expand across the Gaza Strip as the Israeli military claims that ground forces are “close to completing their operation in northern Gaza.” Dozens of Israeli tanks enter southern part of besieged Gaza Strip, while Israeli advance was reported in the center of the enclave.
According to Israeli Brigadier General Hisham Ibrahim, commander of the Israeli armored corps, “the goals in the northern part have almost been achieved”. The Israeli military officially claimed the expansion of ground operations in other parts of the Gaza Strip “with the sole purpose of destroying Hamas.” The day before, the head of the IDF General Staff claimed that the army had switched to active combat operations in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. He clarified that the fighting would be conducted with the same intensity as in the northern part of the enclave.
On December 4, Israel confirmed destruction of the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court in the Gaza Strip, which were claimed to be the symbols of the Hamas rule in the enclave.
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The IDF reported strikes on 200 Hamas military installations in the Gaza Strip on the night of December 4. According to a spokesperson for the UNICEF, the southern Gaza Strip is currently facing its “worst bombardment” since the beginning of Israel’s brutal aggression against the Palestinian territory.
In the morning, heavy bombing resumed in the Khan Yunis residential areas. According to local reports, an unprecedented number of civilians was killed, exceeding all previous days after the ceasefire ended.
More civilian casualties were reported as a result of Israeli strikes throughout the Gaza Strip, most of which hit various districts of the Gaza City. Some of the targets included:
- Salah Al-Din School, where thousands of Palestinians have taken refuge;
- UNRWA school, which is housing displaced people in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip
- the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Beit Lahia
- hospital in the Al-Rimal area
- a house in the middle of Al-Jalaa Street
- homes in the Al-Qasaib neighborhood in the Jabalia camp
- a house on Al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City
- a house in the Zarqa area
- an apartment in the Shujaiya neighborhood
- a mosque in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood
- several more Palestinians were killed in fresh Israeli airstrikes on Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip.
- one more Palestinian journalist and dozens of civilians were killed in Israeli airstrike on Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Journalists and other civilians run for their lives after been targeted by Israeli heavy machine gun fire on Salah Eddin street in Gaza.
The sounds of intense shelling in the area of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza Strip:
The number of casualties from Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip has risen to 15,899 since October 7th. 42,000 more were reportedly wounded, according to the Ministry of Health. The number of confirmed casualties is likely to increase sharply in the coming days.
In its turn, the Israeli army acknowledged the deaths of three more soldiers in Gaza. The current death toll from the ground invasion is 75 Israeli servicemen.
