(Dan Tri) – Israel’s Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said that this country’s forces are operating inside Gaza City and are besieging the area from many directions.

Israeli soldiers inside the Gaza Strip, November 2 (Photo: Israel Defense Forces).

`We have entered another significant phase in the war. Forces are in the center of northern Gaza, operating in Gaza City,` Lieutenant General Halevi said in a November 2 announcement.

Lieutenant General Halevi said Israeli soldiers are fighting Hamas in close combat with the help of accurate intelligence and support from the air and sea.

On the afternoon of November 2, the IDF revealed that tanks and infantry experienced what the Times of Israel described as a chaotic and tense three-hour battle in the northern Gaza Strip last night.

Hamas gunmen ambushed Israeli forces at midnight after emerging from the tunnel, attacking with anti-tank missiles, mortars and drones, even trying to take control of armored vehicles.

According to the IDF, more than 20 Hamas gunmen were killed and some escaped.

The Nahal infantry brigade also encountered a group of Hamas gunmen and led the attack aircraft to destroy them.

The IDF said it continued to attack a series of Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip, including weapons production and storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch sites and drone launch sites

Late on November 2, Israel’s General Directorate of Military Intelligence said its `target center` had identified about 1,200 new Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli armored vehicles operate inside the Gaza Strip, November 2 (Photo: Israel Defense Forces).

Walla news website reported that Israeli engineers are starting a major campaign to destroy Hamas tunnels in areas of the Gaza Strip.

Specifically, Israeli engineers are using many types of robots and explosive devices to destroy tunnels and detonate Hamas’s booby traps.

`At first the enemy may harass us, shooting at us from the tunnel exits, but after we establish control, the engineering operation begins,` said a senior ministry officer.

`We will knock out the entrances and tunnels. They will become death zones. The enemy made a mistake by choosing to stay in a place where they could not escape,` the officer said.

Walla said the Israeli army has destroyed about 100 tunnels, not including those hit by bombs in air strikes.

To date, 18 soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have died in the operation in the Gaza Strip, the highest-ranking of which is a 33-year-old lieutenant colonel commanding the 53rd Battalion of the 188th Armored Brigade.

Photo taken from southern Israel shows Israeli helicopters launching flares over the Gaza Strip on November 1 (Photo: AFP).

In addition to Hamas, fighters from the Islamic Jihad – an ally of Hamas in the Gaza Strip – also emerged from the tunnel to shoot at the tanks, then returned to their hideouts, according to residents and

`They kept bombing Gaza City all night, the houses kept shaking,` said a Palestinian man who asked to remain anonymous.

Given the difficulties of fighting in an urban environment, Israel appears to be strategic in concentrating large forces in the northern Gaza Strip instead of launching a ground attack on the entire territory.

The latest fighting in the decades-long conflict began when Hamas militants crossed the border on October 7, killing 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, and taking more than 200 hostages.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza health agency, Israel’s retaliatory bombardments of this small territory of 2.3 million people have killed at least 9,061 people, including 3,760 children and 2,326 women.