Drone From Yemen Intercepted Over Southern Israel As UN Warns War Spilling Outside Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said Tuesday its troops are busy engaged in “fierce battles against Hamas terrorists deep in the Gaza Strip” and that multiple Hamas positions and anti-tank guided missile units have been destroyed. 

A military statement also said troops had killed dozens of terrorists as tanks push deeper into northern and central Gaza, after yesterday tank units cut off a key north-south highway which links both halves of the Strip. 

A statement from Hamas was cited in regional media as saying, “Israeli military vehicles are being seen on the Salahuddin Highway trying to move west,” and affirmed that “Israeli forces also entered the strip from northwestern Gaza. Armored vehicles can now be seen in the al-Karam district north of Gaza City.”

Amid ongoing airstrikes accompanying the ground invasion, the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 8,500 as of Tuesday. For the first time this has pushed the total number of people killed in the conflict from both sides near 10,000 – as more than 1,400 Israelis have been confirmed dead. 

A fresh New York Times report has examined satellite imagery taken Monday morning which “shows the substantial scale of one of Israel’s main advances into northern Gaza, where hundreds of armored vehicles have pushed miles past the border into urban areas on the outskirts of Gaza City.” According to more from the detailed report:

Israel has so far stopped short of the rapid and overwhelming ground assault that many analysts expected. But the imagery, taken on Monday morning by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite company, shows a significant invading force: many groups of dozens of armored vehicles cutting through open fields and amassing in urban spaces.

The image provides the clearest picture yet of how far one the main lines of Israel’s invasion has moved into Gaza and the destruction it has caused. Israeli vehicles are seen as far south as the neighborhood of Al Karama, north of Gaza City. Videos released by the Israeli military had previously shown lines of tanks operating near the border area.

Many nearby buildings appear to have been heavily damaged or completely destroyed by airstrikes. Hundreds of craters from airstrikes and shelling are visible, including in homes and on roads, and apartment blocks have been flattened.

Extensive piece by @Josh_H et al. @nytimes analysing satellite imagery taken today of Gaza.

“A Detailed Satellite View of Israel’s Invasion” https://t.co/lsYwwMXRJa https://t.co/RXOSCMgUSX pic.twitter.com/E3hlJPQdcW

— Will Marshall (@Will4Planet) October 31, 2023

Israel has also said it has begun to attack Hamas militants inside the sprawling network of tunnels which forms the base of the group’s operations in the Gaza Strip.

Regional tensions and the potential for the war to spread have grown after PM Netanyahu said in a Monday night address amid international calls for a ceasefire or at least humanitarian pause that, “Calls for a ceasefire or calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorists, to surrender to barbarism, that will not happen.”

He was also pressed by reporters over whether he would resign amid the growing scandal over Oct.7 intelligence and military preparedness failures. Netanyahu merely said he plans to “resign” Hamas: “We’re going to resign them to the dustbin of history. That’s my goal. That’s my responsibility.”

Hamas’ Qassam Brigades releases scenes of yesterday’s clashes with Israeli forces invading west of Erez in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/AqXlPrbBDz

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) October 31, 2023

The UN is now warning that the war is spilling over into Syria, after Israel struck more targets in Syria and Lebanon overnight, and after Hezbollah fired more projectiles. Israel in the last two weeks has already struck Damascus and Aleppo international airports several times.

And related to regional tensions with Iran, Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen appear to have stepped up their threats and attacks aimed at Israel. The group’s military spokesman on Tuesday announced a “third operation targeting Israel with more to come.” According to Al Jazeera, a drone sent from Yemen made it to southern Israeli skies: 

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have launched a drone attack towards Israel’s southern city of Eilat in “retaliation” for the war in Gaza.

Israel reported having destroyed an unidentified “aerial target” over the Red Sea on Tuesday morning.

It was successfully intercepted, Israeli officials have said. “The incident triggered air raid sirens in the popular Red Sea tourist resort of Eilat and sent residents running for shelter,” the Al Jazeera report continues, indicating further: 

After an initial warning of a possible “hostile aircraft intrusion”, the military said in a statement, its “systems identified an aerial target approaching Israeli territory”.

#Eilat and Ramon Airport in north of this town were attacked again by missiles or drones of #Yemen‘s Ansar Allah. It should be noted that the Israeli media claimed that Saudi Arabia and Egypt helped Israel repel these attacks.
Video: activity of air defense systems over Eilat. pic.twitter.com/wfT0JUNOsv

— IWN (@A7_Mirza) October 31, 2023

Yesterday at the UN, Israel’s ambassador Gilad Erdan in a dramatic speech, which also saw his delegation wearing yellow star of David emblems and vowing “never again”, ripped the “Nazi regime” of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Just like the Nazi regime, the Ayatollah’s regime (in Iran) sows death and destruction everywhere it touches,” the Israeli ambassador to the UN said. “The Islamic Nazi regime of Iran is responsible for aiding terrorists around the globe, and working toward destroying every value the civilized world holds dear. Today the world is watching the rise of a Shiite Islamic Reich. Yet just like the rise of Nazism, the world is deafeningly silent.”

The stunt was met with criticism and pushback internationally, and especially from Yad Vashem (The World Holocaust Remembrance Center), whose chairman Dani Dayan had this to say… 

“We were deeply saddened to witness members of the Israeli delegation to the UN donning yellow badges.” He emphasized that such a move trivializes and dishonors the Holocaust and its victims, and harms the reputation of Israel itself. 

Israel and the US have continued to ultimately blame Tehran for what its proxies are doing, particularly related to Hezbollah, paramilitaries in Syria, and now Houthis after it has sent a few rockets toward Israel in the last couple weeks (the first which was intercepted by a US warship off Yemen’s coast).