Israeli army to launch expanded ground offensive in Gaza

The Israeli army has announced that forces would be expanding ground operations in Gaza overnight, suggesting a full-scale invasion may be starting.

Chief military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari reiterated a call for residents of Gaza City to move south as communications blackouts were reported.

He said: “In recent hours we have increased the attacks in Gaza. The air force widely attacks underground targets and terrorist infrastructure, very significantly.

“In continuation of the offensive activity we carried out in the last few days, the ground forces are expanding the ground activity this evening.”

The announcement came hours after Hagari sparked fears that hospitals would be targeted.

He told a news conference that “concrete evidence” had been found that Hamas was directing attacks from within medical sites.
He displayed photographs, illustrations and audio recordings which he claimed showed areas both inside and under Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al Shifa that had been turned into command centres.

Hagari said: “What we are doing now is putting a red flag to the world. We are putting a red flag against the international law.”
Attacking a hospital is considered a war crime under the International Criminal Court statute.

But Hagari declared: “When medical facilities are used for terror purposes they are liable to lose their protection from attack in accordance with international law.”

Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas government media office in Gaza, refuted the claims during a press conference at the hospital.

He said audio recordings and images had been fabricated by Israel, and said there was “not a single piece of evidence” that a network of tunnels used by Hamas lay below the hospital.

He added: “This is home to more than 60,000 people taking refuge within the compound, in addition to thousands of patients and victims, let alone thousands of medical personnel.”

Charley Cooper, the former senior Pentagon official, told the Daily Express that international law was “complicated because there is not one unified and agreed upon rulebook”.

He said: “It’s a hodge-podge of treaties, court cases, agreements, dictates from multinational bodies with terms that are vague enough to be used by both sides to justify their actions.

“I have no idea if the IDF claims are true, but if indeed Hamas leaders are using a hospital as a command center, both sides will claim international law protects their actions.

“Hamas will say the hospital cannot be bombed because it is a safe haven for innocent civilians and the wounded, while Israel will say it is a legitimate target because Hamas has decided to convert it to military use and they are merely using civilians as human shields.”

Mr Cooper added: “Regardless of international law, how each side decides to handle this will inevitably impact the court of global public opinion, and that may well matter more in shaping what’s to come.”

Twenty days after Hamas terrorists murdered 1,400 Israelis during a series of barbaric attacks, officials in Gaza claimed the Palestinian death toll had passed 7,300.

Reports emerged that Benjamin Netanyahu had angered military leaders by refusing to sign off plans for a full-scale invasion, with senior officials reportedly divided over how, when and whether to invade.

However, Yoav Gallant, the country’s defence minister, told reporters in Tel Aviv that Israel expected to launch a long and difficult offensive into Gaza to destroy Hamas.

Mr Gallant said a ground invasion would lead to a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting in order to destroy “pockets of resistance” and dismantle a network of tunnels used by the terrorist group.

Al Jazeera, the Qatar state-owned TV network, reported that negotiations on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas were “progressing and at an advanced stage”.

Meanwhile, tensions were rising in the region. The US military launched air strikes on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the action was in response to attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups.

He added that they were “separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas”.

Aid agencies continued to call for a ceasefire to permit deliveries of essential supplies.

The UN agency for Palestine refugees which provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza, said it has been forced to ration fuel among lifesaving machines in hospitals, bakeries, and desalination plants, and only has enough for a few more days.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, warned Gaza was “being strangled”. He told reporters: “The siege means that food, water and fuel – basic commodities – are being used to collectively punish more than two million people, among them, a majority of children and women.”

But Israel’s defence minister said he believed Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters the besieged Strip.

He said Hamas used generators to pump air into its hundreds of miles of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas and showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

“For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us,” Mr Gallant said.

Lynne Hastings, the UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said: “We have been bringing fuel into Gaza in coordination with the government of Israel for decades.

“We know fuel is a high-risk item and are working with the Israelis to make sure what we will be using for our operations is done securely.”

The UNRWA also confirmed that 53 of its staff had been killed since October 7, including a father-of-six who died while collecting bread.