Dramatic moment Israeli soldier lobs grenade into tunnel shaft as he comes face-to-face with Hamas fighters during bitter fighting in north of Gaza

• IDF says the soldiers ‘neutralized the terrorist and destroyed the tunnel shaft’
• Israel has come under significant pressure to scale back combat operations 

Dramatic bodycam footage shows the moment an Israeli soldier throws a hand grenade down a tunnel shaft as he comes face-to-face with Hamas fighters in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Bitter fighting continues between Israel’s Defence Forces and Hamas despite growing international and domestic pressure to scale back the offensive in the besieged enclave.

Israel’s air and ground assault has seen it target some 200 targets in the past day, including several apartments used by Hamas in the Gaza City suburb of Shejaiya, where it said paratroopers found stockpiles of weapons.

During its operations in the area, a soldier in the IDF’s 188th Brigade filmed himself tentatively approaching a tunnel shaft before a terrorist breaks cover to shoot at him and his comrades from inside. 

They start to return fire before the soldier tells the others to hold off as he pulls the pin on a grenade, throwing it into the tunnel. The IDF said the close-quarters combat was successful and that its troops ‘neutralized the terrorist and destroyed the tunnel shaft.’

The soldier recording the bodycam footage tells the others to hold fire as he pulls the pin on a grenade

Israeli soldiers walk around what the army says is the entrance to a tunnel shaft in which a Hamas fighter is hiding and firing from

Smoke pours out of the shaft as the two sides exchange fire before an Israeli soldier throws a grenade into the tunnel

Israel is pressing ahead with its offensive today after it emerged yesterday that three hostages were killed by IDF troops. The men, all in there 20s, were shirtless and waving a white flag. 

The incident has raised questions about its conduct in a 10-week-old war that has brought unprecedented death and destruction to the coastal enclave.

Naama Weinberg, whose cousin Itai remains in captivity, shared her concerns about the safety of the remaining hostages. 

‘We don’t need dead bodies. We need people alive,’ she told the BBC.

Protests in Israel continue as loved ones of those still being held captive say the only way to bring them home is through a deal with Hamas.

Israel is thought be in negotiations to get hostages returned, with talks reportedly being brokered by Qatar and Egypt, following a temporary ceasefire last month, which saw dozens freed.

But Benjamin Netanyahu has been firm that Israel must continue to apply military pressure on Hamas, vowing that his country will continue the war ‘until absolute victory’.

At a press conference last night, he spoke about Israel remaining ‘relentless’ in its military and diplomatic efforts ‘to bring back all the hostages home safely.’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv, Israel on December 17

Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Saturday, December 16

Israeli soldiers on top of a pile of rubble as they operate in the Gaza Strip amid a major ground offensive

An Israeli soldier looks on from Merkava tank during operations in the Gaza Strip

Civil defense teams carry out search and rescue operations under debris of destroyed buildings after Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza on December 17

Gaza remained under a communications blackout for a fourth straight day – the longest of several outages over the course of the war, which aid groups say complicate rescue efforts after bombings and make it even more difficult to monitor the war’s toll on civilians.

The situation is becoming increasingly desperate for hospitals struggling to get supplies amid an overwhelming flow of casualties.

The emergency department at Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, devastated by Israeli bombardments, is ‘a bloodbath’ and ‘in need of resuscitation’, the World Health Organization said today .

As the civilian death toll mounts, Israel has come under significant pressure to scale back major combat operations, with France today calling for an ‘immediate and durable’ truce.

And in a landmark change in the UK Government‘s stance towards the conflict in Gaza, the Foreign Secretary David Cameron has called for a ‘sustainable ceasefire’ between Israel and Hamas.

Lord Cameron published a piece in The Sunday Times today along with German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock saying they ‘share the view that this conflict cannot drag on and on’.

A Palestinian child looks on at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

A heartbreaking picture shows small children, looking on distraught at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah

Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip

The pair advocated for an ‘end the endless cycle of violence’, but stated they were not calling for an ‘immediate’ ceasefire. 

The pressure could be piled on further when U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits this week.

Washington expressing growing unease with civilian casualties and the mass displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians – nearly 85 per cent of Gaza’s population – even as it has provided vital military and diplomatic support to its close ally.

The air and ground war has flattened vast swathes of northern Gaza and driven most of the population to the southern part of the besieged territory, where many are packed into crowded shelters and tent camps.

Foreign Secretary David Cameron has called for a ‘sustainable ceasefire’ between Israel and Hamas 

Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets in all parts of Gaza.

Its onslaught has killed at least 18,800 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas government. 

Despite the growing international pressure, Israel has vowed to continue operations until it dismantles Hamas, which triggered the war with its October 7 attack into southern Israel, in which militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. 

Israeli soldiers walk over tank tracks on a beach in the Gaza Strip as they continue operations

An Israeli military vehicle drives down a road as it retreats following a raid at the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near the northern city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on December 17, 2023

Hamas released over 100 of more than 240 hostages captured on Oct. 7 in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners during a brief cease-fire in November. Nearly all freed on both sides were women and minors. Israel has successfully rescued one hostage. 

There is growing pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to reach a new deal with Hamas for the release of at least some of the hostages. More than 120 people remain in captivity.

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