JERUSALEM:Â Gaza was largely cut off from the outside world on Saturday (Oct 28) as Israel rained more bombs from the air and suggested its long-promised ground offensive against Hamas militants controlling the Palestinian enclave was underway.
Israel said troops sent in on Friday night were still in the field whereas previously it had made only brief sorties during three weeks of bombing to destroy Hamas whom it said killed 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, on Oct 7.
“We have entered a new phase in the war. Last night the ground in Gaza shook. We attacked above ground and below ground,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video statement, alluding to the network of military tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza.
“The operation will continue until a new order.”
Israel’s military renewed a call for civilians of Gaza City to move south from the north, warning that the area was now a “battlefield”.
“Shelters in northern Gaza and Gaza governorate are not safe,” the army said in leaflets dropped by fighter jets, as it urged residents to “evacuate immediately” to the south.
The army already delivered similar warnings earlier in its campaign, but many who fled south ended up returning to their homes after failing to find refuge from Israeli bombing.
“The impending IDF (Israel Defense Forces) operation is set to neutralise the threat of Hamas with precision and intensity,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari earlier said on social media platform X.Â
Hamas has pledged to confront Israeli attacks with “full force”.
Overnight, Israel conducted one of the most intense nights of strikes in response to the Oct 7 Hamas attacks. “Hundreds of buildings and houses were completely destroyed and thousands of other homes were damaged,” said Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal.
Gaza has been under an almost complete communications blackout since Friday evening with phone and internet services cut, which the Palestinian Red Crescent blamed on Israel.
Hagari said Israel would allow trucks with food, water and medicine to enter Gaza, indicating that bombing might pause, at least in the area of its border with Egypt where some aid has trickled in.
Source: CNA
