Hamas denies Israel is making big military gains in Gaza City

Beirut: Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad, speaking on Tuesday from Beirut, denied that Israeli forces were making any significant military gains or that they had advanced deep into Gaza City.

“They never give the people the truth,” Hamad said. He added that numerous Israeli soldiers were killed on Monday and “many tanks were destroyed.”

“The Palestinians fight and fight and fight against Israel, until we end the occupation,” said Hamad, who left Gaza days before the attack.

Israel’s military says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters in the monthlong war. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claims of either side.

A month of relentless bombardment in Gaza since the Hamas attack has killed more than 10,300 Palestinians two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures have largely held up under scrutiny following previous wars. More than 2,300 are believed to have been buried by strikes that in some cases have demolished entire city blocks.

In the October 7 incursion, Hamas militants killed over 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and captured 242, including men, women, children and older adults. Israel says 30 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began, and Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel on a daily basis.

The death toll on both sides is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence.