IDF: Troops breach Hamas defenses, approach Gaza City

Military officials declared Wednesday that Israeli forces had breached Hamas’s first line of defense and were approaching Gaza City. The military continued to pound the Strip and eliminated the commander of the terror group’s anti-tank missile array. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that “with advance planning, precise intelligence and joint attacks from the land, air and sea, our forces broke through Hamas’s front lines of defense in the north of the Gaza Strip.” Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, the commander of the IDF’s 162nd Division, said Israeli forces had advanced deep into Gaza and were “at the gates of Gaza City.” Cohen, speaking to reporters near the Strip, said 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.”