Pressure mounts on Israel for longer Gaza pause france24.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from france24.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
"The real pressure (to prolong the truce) comes from inside Israel from the families of the hostages," said Arik Rudnitzky, from Tel Aviv University. | World News
Israel faces mounting pressure to extend a four-day pause in its war against Hamas, but military officials fear that a longer truce risks blunting its efforts to rout the movement. After hours of delay and acrimony that underscored the fragility of the truce, a second tranche of 13 Israeli hostages was freed on Saturday by Hamas in exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners the same number as the previous day.
According to both Hamas and Israel, the much dreaded, or anticipated depending on your perspective, battle for the extensive defensive tunnel network beneath Gaza known locally as the “Gaza Metro” has begun. Israel announced on October 29th that the I.D.F. (Israeli Defense Forces) attacked Hamas gunmen in a tunnel and destroyed Hamas fighters who emerged from a tunnel to attack their position in northwest Gaza. Remarkably, Hamas has posted a video of what appears to be the same attack from the vantage point of fighters moving across a sandy beach towards the Israelis. While not spectacular, the Israelis have also posted a video on You Tube titled “IDF Fighting Fierce Battle in Hamas Tunnels” featuring images of its Merkava tank-backed troops assaulting Hamas’ underground labyrinth with earth excavation hoes, drills, remote cameras, and tantalizing brief footage of IDF forces operating in a concrete reinforced tunnels. And on November 1st, even as the IDF announced that
Tunnel warfare tends to lessen any advantages a stronger, more advanced attacker might otherwise expect – and to favor the defenders hidden underground.