IDF announces expansion of ground operation in Gaza after heavy round of airstrikes
CNN
By Kevin Flower, Christian Edwards, Kareem Khadder and Abeer Salman CNN
(CNN) — The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced Friday, as intense airstrikes rocked the besieged enclave and with communications links reportedly severed.
Gaza residents told CNN the strikes were the most intense they have experienced since Israel began to retaliate against Hamas’ October 7 terror attack nearly three weeks ago.
A substantial ground offensive has been expected ever since the attacks, in which Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and saw some 200 people taken to Gaza as hostages, but it is not yet clear whether the IDF announcement signals the start of it.
A CNN team on the ground in southern Israel, close to the border with Gaza, reported a series of large explosions rocking Gaza City in the north of the enclave, as well as “unusual, intense and sustained” military activity for the past couple of hours. A huge wall of heavy smoke that lasted 15 to 30 minutes also blew from Gaza into southern Israel earlier Friday evening.
Jawwal, which provides mobile service to the Gaza Strip, said in a statement Friday “the intense bombardment in the past hour has resulted in the destruction of all remaining international routes connecting Gaza with the outside world,” leading to a “complete interruption of telecommunications services.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel off cutting communications and internet in the Gaza Strip Friday in an “attempt to create darkness so that crimes can be committed” in preparation for an IDF ground operation.
Speaking to CNN, Shtayyeh said “the world is facing a historic moment ” and needed to act in order to stop the “aggression and massacres” that would come in an incursion.
The IDF would not comment on whether it had cut off telephone and internet service in the coastal enclave.
Gaza has been “left in the dark with no connection to the outside world,” an eyewitness at the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah told CNN.
The eyewitness also said the hospital has received the bodies of 11 people killed and dozens injured from the intensified bombardment of central Gaza Friday night, and added that casualties are expected to rise.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it has “completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza and all our teams operating there.”
“We are deeply concerned about the ability of our teams to continue providing their emergency medical services,” according to a statement.
After Israel’s announcement Friday, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi urged the approval of a pending resolution at the United Nations that calls for a ceasefire. In a post on X, he said “voting against Arab #UNGA resolution means approving this senseless war, this senseless killing.”
The UN General Assembly is expected to vote Friday afternoon on the resolution, which calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the war between Israel and Hamas. The US and Israel have rejected the resolution.
IDF ‘operating forcefully’
The IDF mobilized more than 300,000 reservists in the wake of the October 7 attack, saying it planned to “destroy” Hamas and prevent it from launching further attacks on Israeli soil.
“Hundreds of thousands of IDF soldiers are all around the borders of the state – in the air, ground and the sea – to protect the state,” Hagari said Friday.
Hagari said the IDF is “operating forcefully” on all fronts to achieve Israel’s war aims, and said it would “continue striking Gaza City.” He called on civilians to continue to evacuate south.
When asked about a possible deal to release some 200 hostages captured by Hamas during its attack on October 7, Hagari told reporters to “disregard rumors.” Hagari dismissed reports that a hostage deal was close to being brokered as “psychological terror and a cynical use of Israeli civilians by Hamas.”
The announcement that the IDF is expanding ground operations came after it conducted two “targeted raids” overnight Wednesday and Thursday into Gaza.
The IDF described the first raid as “intended to create better terms for ground operations if and when that comes in.”
The White House said it would not be appropriate to weigh in on Israel’s expanded military campaign.
“We have, of course, certainly seen Israel undertake varied operations on the ground in the last couple of days,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday. “But again, we’re not going to get into the habit of chiming in from the sidelines here on what they’re trying to do on the ground.”
Kirby declined to say if Israel had informed the US before launching an expanded ground operation into Gaza Friday. He also declined to say if the Biden administration has confidence that Israel has fully considered the ramifications of a ground incursion.
But Kirby said the US had held “active conversations” with Israel about a humanitarian pause to allow for the release of hostages. “We are working as hard today as we were yesterday and the day before and the day before to get these hostages home,” Kirby told CNN.
Earlier Friday, the main UN agency in Gaza warned of the deepening humanitarian crisis facing more than 2 million Palestinians living in the enclave.
“Food and water are running out. The streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage. Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard as the risks of diseases are looming,” said Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
While aid has began to trickle into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, Lazzarini said the deliveries so far amounted to “nothing more than crumbs.”
This story is developing and will be updated.
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CNN’s Kevin Liptak, DJ Judd, Priscilla Alvarez and Sam Fossum contributed reporting.
