WASHINGTON — Israeli armored columns pushed into the northern Gaza Strip on Monday in their latest incursion yet amid the current war, just days after a senior American military adviser returned home to the United States.
During a ground raid launched overnight, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it rescued a female Israeli soldier held hostage by Palestinian militants in the enclave. Also on Monday, Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades claimed its forces had repelled an Israeli incursion in eastern Gaza and also fought Israeli forces in the enclave’s north.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday announced the IDF had begun sending raids into the Gaza Strip on Friday evening as part of the “second phase” of its war to depose Hamas, which he said would likely be “long and difficult.”
Netanyahu’s announcement followed reports of prior, smaller-scale raids into the enclave by the IDF as American military advisers led by two-star US Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn sought to provide Israeli commanders with insights learned during the US-led campaigns in Syria and Iraq.
