Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continues to make progress: bisect Gaza, cut off Gaza City

Face it, the IDF is a superb fighting force. Well equipped, well led, great Air Force... just an all-around, enviable organization. Hamas's continuing insistence of jamming a stick into Israel's eye for months was a self-actualizing death sentence for terrorists in the region.

They're a desease... the IDF is the cure.

The international, pro-terrorist cacophony stands somewhat muted over the usual, anti-Israeli (Dare I say it? Anti-Semitic, Jew-hating) condemnation: many are smart enough to realize that Israel is responding to incessant attacks by Iranian-succored terrorist thugs, supported locally be a population that would love to see Israel destroyed and its inhabitants slaughtered by the millions.

In the parlance: GET SOME! and then, GET SOME MORE!

Israeli forces bisect Gaza, surround biggest city
Sunday, January 4 1:24 a.m.

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and MATTI FRIEDMAN Associated Press Writers

Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip early Sunday, bisecting the coastal territory and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas gained momentum.

Thousands of soldiers in three brigade-size formations pushed into Gaza after nightfall Saturday, beginning a long-awaited ground offensive after a week of intense aerial bombardment. Black smoke billowed over Gaza City at first light and bursts of machine gun fire rang out.

TV footage showed Israeli troops with night-vision goggles and camouflage face paint marching in single file. Artillery barrages preceded their advance, and they moved through fields and orchards following bomb-sniffing dogs ensuring their routes had not been booby-trapped.

The military said troops killed or wounded dozens of militant fighters, but Palestinian medical teams in Gaza, unable to move because of the fighting, could not provide casualty figures. Hamas said only three of its fighters had been killed, and Gaza health officials said eight civilians also died, including a 12-year-old girl in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya and four family members killed in an airstrike in southern Gaza.

Army ambulances were seen bringing Israeli wounded to a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. The military reported 30 Israeli troops were wounded, two seriously, in the opening hours of the offensive.

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