Netanyahu hails 'progress' in Gaza war against Hamas

Israeli ground forces fought deadly battles with Hamas militants inside Gaza on Monday and sent tanks to the outskirts of the biggest city as air strikes pounded the besieged Palestinian territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his war cabinet Israeli forces were making "systematic progress" in the campaign to defeat Hamas in response to the October 7 attacks.

The Israeli military said a woman soldier was released from captivity after an operation in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.

"Last night, soldier Ori Megidish was released during a ground operation after being kidnapped by Hamas on October 7," the army said, adding she had been "medically checked" and was "doing well". Netanyahu's office published a photo of her surrounded by family members.

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The military "has expanded its ground entry into the Gaza Strip, it is doing it in measured, very powerful steps, making systematic progress one step at a time", Netanyahu said in his video statement in Hebrew.

The intensifying campaign since the Hamas attacks has sharply heightened fears for the 2.4 million civilians trapped inside Gaza, where the Hamas-controlled health ministry says more than 8,300 have died.

Concern has surged about the widening humanitarian crisis and the fate of hospitals in the war zone where, the World Health Organisation warns, many patients cannot be safely moved despite Israel's evacuation order.

Netanyahu vowed to "crush" Hamas after its gunmen killed 1,400 people and took more than 230 hostages, according to the latest Israeli figures.

The attack set off the bloodiest-ever Gaza war, marked by weeks of withering aerial bombardment and three continuous nights of ground operations centred on northern Gaza, which Israel has told civilians to evacuate.

In heavy clashes overnight, the Israeli army said it had killed dozens of militants hiding "inside buildings and tunnels", and a warplane struck a building "with over 20 Hamas terrorist operatives inside".

Columns of Israeli tanks and armoured bulldozers were seen churning through the sand, and snipers took positions inside emptied residential buildings, in footage released by the army.

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Dozens of tanks advanced for more than an hour into the southern fringes of Gaza City and blocked the main north-south highway, "firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it", an eyewitness told AFP by phone.

Air strikes also cratered the road and brought down buildings, residents said, before the tanks withdrew from the area.

The Israeli ground forces were supported by heavy fire from the air and artillery, with the army striking more than 600 targets within 24 hours, up sharply from 450 a day earlier.

Hamas said it had fired anti-tank missiles at two Israeli armoured vehicles.

It also charged Israel was trying to present a "false image that its soldiers are present in the Gaza Strip interior, even though blows delivered by the resistance have prevented them".

Hamas also released a video of what it said were three women hostages, seated against a tile wall, although the time and place of the recording could not be verified.

One called in an agitated tone for Netanyahu to agree to Hamas' proposed exchange of the hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu decried the clip as "cruel psychological propaganda". He named the three as Yelena Trupanob, Daniel Aloni and Rimon Kirsht, and vowed "to bring all the abducted and missing people home".

The more than 230 hostages — aged between a few months and above 80 — are believed to be held in a network of underground tunnels where Hamas has hid its military infrastructure from Israeli surveillance and air attacks.

Israel's foreign ministry confirmed the death of one of those missing — German-Israeli Shani Louk, 23, who was captured by Hamas when fighters stormed a music festival in the Israeli desert.