UPDATE - Gaza government says Israeli tanks withdraw from main highway after brief incursion

UPDATES WITH STATEMENTS FROM PALESTINIAN GROUPS

By Mohamed Majed

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Israeli tanks have withdrawn from Salah al-Din street in Gaza City after a brief incursion, the government in the Gaza Strip said on Monday.

“There are no Israeli tanks in Salah al-Din street and life has returned to normal,” the Government Media Office said in a statement.

Earlier, witnesses told Anadolu that Israeli tanks moved Sunday night from Juhor Ad-Dik town in the eastern Gaza Strip to Salah al-Din street, southeast of Gaza City.

The incursion coincided with heavy artillery shelling and airstrikes, they said.

“The occupation is trying to paint an unreal picture regarding the presence of its forces inside Gaza, but they can’t stay in the territory under the resistance strikes,” the media office said.

“There is no ground incursion into residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip,” it added.

Meanwhile, Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said its fighters shelled two Israeli armed vehicles east of Zeitoun district in Gaza.

Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based group, said its fighters trapped Israeli forces east of Zeitoun district and inflicted casualties.

Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said earlier Monday that the army was “gradually advancing” into Gaza.

“We are carrying out an expanded ground operation into the strip,” he told reporters.

The Israeli army on Friday widened its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless airstrikes since the surprise offensive by Hamas on Oct. 7.

Nearly 9,850 people have been killed in the conflict, including 8,306 Palestinians and more than 1,538 Israelis.