Israel-Gaza war: New Hamas video purportedly shows militants targeting tank – as IDF says its troops ‘at gates of Gaza City’
Hamas has released footage purportedly showing its fighters clashing with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian militants can be seen apparently climbing out of an underground tunnel and firing what appears to be grenade launchers, as Israel‘s days-long ground offensive continues deeper into the territory in its attempt to “wipe out” Hamas.
An Israeli tank seems to be hit in the attack and then explodes in a ball of fire.
It comes as a senior Hamas official called for the “annihilation” of Israel, and the Israeli military said its forces were at the “gates of Gaza City”.
UN warns of ‘unbearable human tragedy’ in Gaza – live updates
Hamas fighters are apparently shown climbing out of tunnels with their weapons. Pic: Hamas
A Hamas fighter aiming what appears to be a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Pic: Hamas
The tank attack is thought to be captured from a militant’s headcam or bodycam video.
Elsewhere in the footage, a Hamas fighter fires what seems to be a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at an unidentified target in a forest.
Sky News has been unable to verify the locations and date of the footage, but Hamas claims it was filmed east of Zeitoun in northern Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says 16 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground operation in Gaza across Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
Hamas’s anti-tank missile unit leader killed, says Israel
Meanwhile, the IDF’s Brigadier General Itzik Cohen, commander of the 162nd armoured division, said his troops were deep in Gaza.
“We are located at the gates of Gaza City,” he told reporters.
Brig. Gen. Cohen added that over the past five days “we have destroyed much of Hamas’s capabilities, attacked its strategic facilities, all of its array of explosives, its underground tunnels and other facilities we completely destroyed”.
But he also cautioned it was a “long task” and there was still much work to do.
The IDF also said one of its airstrikes on Wednesday killed Muhammad A’sar, who it claimed was the head of Hamas’s anti-tank missile unit in Gaza.
According to the military, A’sar was “responsible for all of Hamas’s anti-tank missile units throughout the Gaza Strip, commanded the units in routine times, and assisted their activity in emergencies”.
Hamas threatens further attacks
Earlier, Hamas official Ghazi Hamad, from the group’s political bureau, told Lebanese TV Israel’s “occupation must come to an end. I am talking about all the Palestinian lands”.
Asked by the interviewer: “Does that mean the annihilation of Israel?”, he replied: “Yes of course.”
He said “we are the victims” and vowed that the group would carry out more attacks like it did on 7 October, when militants stormed the Israel border and killed more than 1,400 Israelis in what Hamas called the “Al Aqsa Flood”. Hamas also took more than 200 hostages during the raids.
Mr Hamad said: “The Al Aqsa Flood is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight.”
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says at least 8,796 Palestinians in the narrow coastal enclave, including 3,648 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes since the 7 October attack.
Read more:
How far has Israel got into Gaza?
Hundreds of foreign nationals cross Gaza-Egypt border
What is the Rafah border crossing and who controls it?
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
IDF footage from Gaza ground operation
Second day of strikes on refugee camp reported
On Wednesday, the Hamas-run government said Israeli airstrikes hit apartment buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp near Gaza City for a second day in a row, causing many deaths and injuries.
The previous day, Palestinian health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed about 50 people and wounded 150 there.
Israel said it killed Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari in Tuesday’s attack, who reportedly was a key planner in the 7 October massacre.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘Dozens killed’ in Israeli attack
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
Hamas’s military infrastructure, including hundreds of miles of underground tunnels, is concentrated in Gaza City, according to Israeli officials.
There was no immediate confirmation on possible casualties from the second explosion, but footage showed smoke billowing above the camp and people sifting through piles of rubble and carrying away the injured.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
Read more:
Who is in Trump’s top team?
Trump’s cabinet signals tough stance on China
Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
Read more from Sky News:
Mass displacement in Gaza – people unsure where to go
Donald Trump picks vaccine sceptic as health secretary
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports7 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway