The Israeli military on Friday said its ground forces were "expanding their activity" in the Gaza Strip, as the army moved closer to a full-on ground invasion of the besieged territory. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the army's spokesman, said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets. "In addition to the attacks that we carried out in recent days, ground forces are expanding their activity this evening," he said, per the AP. "The IDF is acting with great force ... to achieve the objectives of the war." Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border with Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against the Hamas militant group.
The ground offensive is expected to be a long and difficult one, said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, whose comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war, three weeks after Hamas' bloody incursion into southern Israel. Israeli troops carried out a second ground raid into Gaza in as many days, striking the outskirts of Gaza City. Gallant told a small group of foreign reporters that it "will take a long time" to dismantle Hamas' vast network of tunnels and that he expected a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys "pockets of resistance." Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas' rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. How Hamas' defeat will be measured, however, remains unclear.
More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Palestinian militants also have fired thousands of rockets into Israel, including one that hit a residential building in Tel Aviv on Friday, wounding four people. The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, say officials there. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies of food, fuel, water, and medicine, and the UN warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was "crumbling" amid near-depleted fuel. The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.
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