Heavy clashes erupt between IDF soldiers & Hamas fighters as Israeli tanks reach Gaza City outskirts

Heavy clashes have been reported from the outskirts of Gaza City of Palestine between soldiers of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) and Hamas fighters.

The clashes erupted after Israeli tanks reached the outskirts of Gaza City and they cut a key road that connects north with the south of besieged Gaza Strip.

Palestinian sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli tanks made an incursion towards Salah al-Din Street, in the middle of the Gaza City governorate.

“They have cut the Salah al-Din road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it,” a resident told AFP news agency.

“There’s absolutely no ground advance inside the residential neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip. What happened on Salah al-Din Street was the incursion of a few occupation army tanks and a bulldozer,” head of the Hamas government office in Gaza Salama Maarouf said in a statement.

“These vehicles targeted two civilian cars on Salah al-Din Street and bulldozed the street before the resistance forced them to retreat. There is currently no presence of occupation army vehicles on Salah al-Din Road, and citizen movement has returned to normal on the road.”

(This is a breaking story. More details awaited)