The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has announced its air and ground forces are stepping up their operations in the Gaza Strip. IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets, and warned residents of Gaza City to move south, where there will be “better conditions”.
Hamas’s military wing said it was confronting Israeli forces in the areas of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza and Burej in the centre of the territory – both entry points that have been used by IDF forces in previous conflicts. “Violent engagements” are taking place on the ground, the Al Qassam Brigades said.
The Israeli military’s announcement came amid exceptionally heavy bombing and a communications blackout across the Gaza Strip. After nightfall, frequent explosions from airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City. The Red Crescent, the World Health Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières, Unicef and other aid groups said they had lost all contact with their staff in Gaza.
A senior Israeli government adviser has said Hamas “will feel our wrath tonight”. “Tonight we are starting payback,” Mark Regev said. “When this is over, Gaza will be very different.” Israel was “beefing up the pressure” on Hamas and that pressure would continue to increase until it had achieved its goal, he said.
The UN general assembly has overwhelmingly called for an “immediate, durable and sustainable humanitarian truce” between Israel and Hamas and demanded unhindered aid access to the besieged Gaza Strip. The motion drafted by Jordan is not binding but carries political weight, reflecting the degree to which the US and Israel are isolated internationally as Israel steps up its ground operations.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes and of turning them into “hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders”. While it is not possible to verify the precise details of the claims by the IDF, there is evidence that Hamas has in the past taken advantage of cover provided by civilian objects, including hospitals.
At least 7,326 Palestinians, including 3,038 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said in its latest update on Friday. The claims have not been independently verified.
“Many more will die” as a result of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) chief, Philippe Lazzarini, warned at a news conference on Friday that basic services in Gaza are “crumbling”, with medicine, food and water running out.
The UN has said it is concerned that war crimes are being committed on both sides of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. “We are concerned about the collective punishment of Gazans in response to the atrocious attacks by Hamas, which also amounted to war crimes,” a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, Ravina Shamdasani, said on Friday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its medics had entered Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of war. Six medical staff passed through the Rafah border crossing on Friday, alongside four other ICRC specialists and six aid trucks carrying urgently needed medical material and water purification supplies, an ICRC spokesperson said.
The Egyptian military reported that two drones fired from the southern Red Sea had landed in two resorts on the Sinai peninsula, one of them falling on Taba, which sits on the border with Israel. Six people were reported hurt in the incident, in a worrying sign of the conflict’s potential to spread.
US fighter jets launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region which began early last week.
EU leaders have unanimously called for humanitarian corridors and “pauses” in the Israel-Hamas war. An official declaration will be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels that wrapped up on Friday.
