Israel to ‘expand’ Gaza ground operations after barrage of airstrikes, IDF says
Israel announced Friday it is “expanding ground operations” as it fights to root out the bloodthirsty Hamas terror group — as a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the group would feel “Israel’s might.”
“We are conducting our sweep-and-clear activities in order to create better conditions for optimal operational conditions on the ground,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Peter Lerner told ABC News Friday afternoon.
“So we are seeking out anti-tank capabilities, we are destroying observation posts and we are engaging the terrorists where we find them on the front lines or in the peripheral of the Gaza Strip,” he said, adding that it was a continuation of IDF “activities” over the past “several days.”
Lerner would not elaborate on ground invasion plans due to “operational concerns,” he told the network.
“We intend on dismantling their capabilities, destroying their government and making sure they can never use the Gaza Strip as a staging ground against our people again.”
Though the barrage of a full-scale ground invasion has yet to begin, the region is in the “next phase” of war following Hamas’ surprise terror attack on Oct. 7, Fox News’ Trey Yingst said.
“I cannot confirm a ground invasion has begun but a new phase has begun,” he reported from southern Israel Friday night.
“We have not seen anything like this,” he said, adding that the night has been “unlike any other night we have covered” and that a source within Gaza told that Palestinians inside the enclave are “terrified.”
“We are beefing up the pressure on Hamas. Hamas is feeling Israel’s might,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior adviser Mark Regev told Fox News.
‘Objectives of war’
IDF ground forces are “expanding their operations tonight” and are “acting with great force… to achieve the objectives of war,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters shortly after Gaza lost power and internet access earlier in the day — leaving millions without the ability to communicate with the outside world as rockets continued to blare overhead.
“The IDF is operating in all dimensions to accomplish the goals of the war,” he said as he urged Palestinians to move to the southern part of the Gaza Strip “where it is much safer.”
Hagari added that he suggests “not to pay attention to the rumors” that a ground invasion was delayed in an effort to free hostages, calling it a “cynical exploitation by Hamas.”
His announcement came after Gaza City was hit with “unusual, intense and sustained” explosions Friday night, according to CNN’s Nic Robertson.
“There have been huge rounds of outgoing tank fire from where we are,” he reported from Sderot, adding, “Round after round of artillery fire going into Gaza as well. Multiple impacts reported in Gaza and Gaza City.”
‘The end of Hamas’
Hours earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed that the Jewish state would launch a “long and difficult” ground offensive soon in its efforts to destroy Hamas.
He said the military is preparing for a campaign that would require dismantling a vast network of underground tunnels in the country’s efforts to “dismantle Hamas.”
“We are responding with fire and creating the conditions for the ongoing war,” Gallant said, according to the Guardian. “There will also be other stages.”
“We are preparing them, and we will carry them out,” he vowed. “I am determined to deliver victory.”
“The symbol will be this is the end of Hamas,” Gallant said.
But he noted a ground invasion would “take a long time” and would be followed by lower-intensity fighting in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces destroy “pockets of resistance.”
The Biden administration did not disclose if it had prior knowledge about IDF advancing its ground operations.
“So, I’m not going to talk about in getting into details of the conversations that we have with our Israeli counterparts and the information, the flow between us,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, according to CNN.
“I think that would be a very imprudent place for me to go.”
Kirby also refused to relay whether the White House has been assured by Israel that it fully weighed the consequences of amplifying its strike on the ground, saying he is “not going to talk about their decision-making process.”
“They have to speak to that, and they have to be able to answer the questions about the soundness of their planning and the effectiveness of their execution,” he added.
The Israeli government has been ramping up its military presence on the southern border with Israel since last week — when photos taken by Reuters on Friday showed several Israeli tanks and other military equipment lining the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of thousands of troops were also lined up along the border awaiting the order to invade the Gaza Strip.
But the Israeli government delayed its ground operation amid negotiations with Hamas officials to free some 200 Israeli civilians it took hostage in its surprise attack on Oct. 7.
Instead, the Israeli military conducted “targeted” attacks on the Gaza Strip, carrying out a second consecutive ground raid Thursday night, when armored vehicles and aircraft descended on an area outside of Gaza City.
Officials claimed to have struck 250 Hamas targets in the area, including command centers, tunnels and launch sites, according to Israel’s i24 News.
They also said soldiers from the marine commando unit targeted militants from the sea off the southern Gaza Stip Friday night, hitting a compound used by Hamas’ commando naval forces.
The decision to “expand” the ground operations was finally made Thursday night when talks on a possible hostage release reached a stalemate, officials told Axios.
Cut off
Just a few hours before the IDF warned of its impending ground invasion, the Hamas government announced on Friday that Israel “cut communications and most of the internet,” Al Arabiya reported — leaving 2.3 million Palestinians cut off from the world and each other.
It accused Israel of taking the measure to “perpetuate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea” after Israeli officials told the AFP it is “continually striking in the Gaza Strip.”
Patel, the Palestinian telecoms company, also said the Israeli bombardment on Friday night had destroyed “all remaining connections between Gaza and the outside world,” while the Palestine Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, claimed it was cut off from its operations room in the Strip because of the internet blackout.
Hamas is now calling on the world to “act immediately” to stop Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.”
“We call on the Arab and Muslim countries and the international community to take responsibility and act immediately to stop the crimes and series of massacres against our people,” the terrorist group said in a statement.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims more than 7,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, including nearly 3,000 children, were killed in airstrikes since the war began earlier this month — though those figures could not be confirmed.
With Post wires
