Israel Defense Forces are poised to expand their military operations into the Gaza Strip. The country launched intense airstrikes and artillery salvos against the Hamas-embedded Palestinian enclave Friday.
Some 1,400 Israeli citizens perished in Hamas terror attacks launched on Oct. 7. Israeli airstrikes against Hamas' positions in the densely populated Gaza Strip have resulted in several thousand casualties.
On Friday afternoon, Gaza reported an internet blackout.
The Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said in a news briefing that the Israeli ground forces were “expanding” their activity in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, but he did not announce a widely anticipated offensive, nor did he say that Israeli troops had entered Gaza. Israeli tanks have made temporary incursions into Gaza twice in the last two days.
Admiral Hagari confirmed that the Israeli Air Force had intensified its strikes on Gaza this evening, saying that they were targeting underground “terrorist infrastructure.” He also said that a major hospital in Gaza was being used by armed groups, an accusation that Hamas has denied.
Two major Palestinian mobile networks, Jawwal and Paltel, said that their phone lines and internet services were down after the new strikes. In the last hour, reporters have struggled to reach residents of Gaza by phone.
Earlier Friday, the United States carried out airstrikes on facilities used by Iranian forces in eastern Syria, U.S. officials said, trying to ward off more attacks on American forces in a region bracing for further escalation in the Israel-Hamas war.
Any large Israeli invasion to exterminate Hamas and destroy its labyrinthine network of underground tunnels will almost certainly result in intense urban fighting and high casualties.
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