Gaza/Tel Aviv – The Israeli army appears to have launched a long-awaited ground operation in the Gaza Strip overnight, aimed at destroying the Palestinian movement Hamas. Defense Minister Joav Galant said Israel had entered a new phase of the war. The overnight ground incursion into northern Gaza was the largest the army has carried out since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, and will continue until further notice, according to Galant. The Gaza Strip also faced what is likely to be the heaviest bombardment since October 7 overnight, leaving the small area of more than two million people in chaos after telecommunications were cut, according to a BBC reporter. The families of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas are also increasingly afraid, and today they called on the Israeli government to meet with them and explain to them whether the intensification of the strikes will endanger the lives of their loved ones.
„We have entered a new phase of the war. Tonight the ground in Gaza shook. We attacked above and below the ground, we attacked terrorists at all levels and everywhere,“ Minister Galant said today. Earlier, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said the army had neutralized two more Hamas commanders overnight, one commanding the air force and the other the navy. According to him, the army hit 150 underground Hamas targets at night.
According to several testimonies cited by the AFP agency, the Israeli army bombed, among other things, the surroundings of the Shifa hospital in Gaza and the so-called Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya in the north of the strip. On Friday evening, an army spokesman said that Hamas had „command centers“ at Shifa Hospital, which Hamas denied.
The Gaza Strip has been facing a total blockade since October 7, in addition to the bombing, Israel has cut off electricity and supplies of water, food, medicine and fuel, which are needed by hospitals for the production of electricity and the functioning of vital devices for the thousands of wounded. Since Friday evening, even the internet and mobile phones have not worked in the area, people have no news about their loved ones and, for example, ambulance drivers only go to the wounded depending on where they hear explosions. Some media have piecemeal information thanks to satellite phones.
„Under such circumstances, it is not possible to evacuate patients or find safe shelter. Ambulances cannot reach the injured due to a malfunctioning electrical network,“ warned today the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who once again called for immediate negotiations on a ceasefire. People called for this again today at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, one of which was held in London, for example.
Due to a large-scale protest, the Central Station in New York had to be closed on Friday evening local time (night today SELČ), where people in the station building demanded a truce between Israel and Hamas. According to Reuters, this demonstration was organized by a Jewish group. „We refuse to let our pain be used to justify attacks against other people,“ said one of the participants of the event. He was thus alluding to the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, which claimed, according to Israeli statistics, 1,400 victims on the Israeli side, including children. Retaliatory Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have claimed the lives of more than 7,700 Palestinians, including about 3,500 children, according to reports from Hamas-controlled authorities today.
The ground operations in the Gaza Strip were condemned today, among others, by the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the UN feared that the ground operation could result in thousands more civilian casualties if expanded further.
Today, the American billionaire Elon Musk responded to the disruption of the telecommunications connection in the Gaza Strip following the calls of a number of social media users, who announced that his Starlink satellite communication system will provide its services to internationally recognized humanitarian organizations in the Gaza Strip. But according to expert Mark Owen Jones from the University of Doha, Qatar, it probably won’t work. „Firstly, there are no terminals in Gaza for this service, secondly, Israel controls what goes into Gaza, and if Starlink does get there, how will it be fueled? There is no fuel in Gaza right now,“ Jones told Al Jazeera television.
The Israeli army is moving to a new phase of the war, operating on the ground.
The Israeli army is moving to a new phase of the fight against the Islamist movement Hamas, Israeli ground forces are now operating in the Gaza Strip. According to Reuters, this was confirmed today by the Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli Army, Herci Halevi. According to him, achieving the objectives of the war requires a ground operation.
„This war has its phases and today we are moving to another phase. Our forces are currently operating on the ground in the Gaza Strip,“ Halevi was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The army chief said there were hundreds of dead on the enemy side and its infrastructure was also destroyed. It is not possible to destroy the enemy without entering his own territory, Halevi emphasized. He also said ground forces were conducting „important and complex“ operations.
As one of the goals of the Israeli operation, the Chief of the General Staff identified the rescue of hostages still held by Hamas. We will do what we can to get the hostages back, Halevi said, according to Reuters.