Israel army says engaged in ‘fierce battles’ with Hamas in Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces were engaged in “fierce battles” with Hamas militants inside the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the army said, as it continued to pummel the Palestinian territory with air and artillery strikes.

Israeli forces are “engaged in fierce battles with Hamas terrorists deep inside the Gaza Strip,” the army said in a statement, adding that dozens of militants had been killed in the past few hours.

Troops struck “anti-tank missile launching cells and anti-tank missile launch and observation posts,” the army said, adding that it had seized numerous weapons, including guns and explosives.

Hamas’s armed wing said its fighters ambushed troops in the Al-Tawam area in northern Gaza.

Fighters “opened fire in an ambush towards invading (Israeli army) vehicles in west Tawam in the northern Gaza Strip and targeted three Zionist vehicles,” Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.