The Israeli tanks approaching the outskirts of Gaza City have now retreated, according to the head of the Hamas government office in Gaza.
“There’s absolutely no ground advance inside the residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. What happened on Salah al-Din Street was the incursion of a few occupation army tanks and a bulldozer,” Salama Maarouf said in a statement, Al Jazeera reported.
“These vehicles targeted two civilian cars on Salah al-Din Street and bulldozed the street before the resistance forced them to retreat.
“There is currently no presence of occupation army vehicles on Salah al-Din Road, and citizen movement has returned to normal on the road.”
A video on social media showed an Israeli tank and bulldozer obstructing the main north-south highway through central Gaza, which the Israeli military had earlier instructed Palestinians to use as an escape route from the escalating ground offensive.
The moment a car approached an earth barrier across the road was caught on camera. The car comes to a stop and reverses.
The Israeli tank fires as it turns away, and the vehicle is completely destroyed by explosion. Later, the Gaza Health Ministry announced that three Palestinians were martyred in the incident.
