The commander of Israel’s armoured corps has said that his and other ground forces were close to achieving their war mission in the northern Gaza Strip and were operating elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave against Hamas, Reuters reports.

“The goals in the northern section have almost been met,” Brigadier-General Hisham Ibrahim told Israel’s Army Radio.

“We are beginning to expand the ground maneouvre to other parts of the Strip, with one goal: to topple the Hamas terrorist group.”