NEW YORK, November 2. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) plans to break through Hamas’s defensive fortifications around bunkers and tunnels in a new phase of military activities in Gaza, Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh reported in his blog on Substack.

"I was told by a military expert, who has served in combat with the IDF, that the tank movements were the beginning of a second phase of its combat operations against Hamas. The goal, he said, is to break Hamas’s defensive perimeter around its main bunkers and tunnels in the center of Gaza City," Hersh wrote.

According to the military expert, the tank columns "are not rushing into the center. Rather, they stay put on the perimeters, firing in from a distance." Such tactics, according to the journalist's sources, minimize Israeli casualties but result in hundreds of enemy fatalities. The downside of such tactics is that buildings and neighborhoods are "flattened," whether civilians are there or not, Hersh pointed out. The journalist also argues that Israel will not stop its almost round-the-clock bombing until 65% of the infrastructure in the Gaza Strip is hit. According to Hersh, Israel's bombardment has turned Gaza City into a deadly wasteland.

On October 31, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s military operation in Gaza had already entered its third phase, which included the expansion of ground operations in the enclave.