GAZA CITY: The fresh direction came when the Gazans death toll crossed 8,000, half of whom are children, said the Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement that civilians in northern Gaza and Gaza City should temporarily move south of Wadi Gaza to a safer area where they can receive water, food, and medicine.
“Tomorrow, the humanitarian efforts to Gaza, led by Egypt and the United States, will be expanding,” he added. Although the video was posted on X, formerly Twitter, early Sunday morning, another IDF spokesperson said whiletalking to media.
The video had been recorded on Saturday, and confirmed the humanitarian efforts would be expanding on Sunday.
Israel unleashed a massive bombing campaign after Hamas gunmen stormed across the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 230 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Since then, relentless Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the territory said Saturday.
Despite increasingly frantic appeals for an end to the violence, Israel says it is intensifying its ground operations, while continuing to pummel Gaza from the sky.
Hamas authorities reported Sunday a “large number” of people killed overnight in strikes on two refugee camps in northern Gaza.
Israel’s Home Front Command earlier warned residents in the southern cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon of incoming missile and rocket attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Saturday the war in Gaza is “going to be long.”
Bibi said the goals of this stage of the war are to destroy Hamas and return the hostages the militant group took on October 7 and still holds in Gaza. Netanyahu confirmed he spoke with family members of the hostages and said he vowed to them that he would exhaust all options to return their loved ones home.
Israeli forces “went into the Gaza Strip and expanded the ground operation where infantry, armor and engineer units and artillery with heavy fire are taking part,” IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.
“The forces are in the field and continue the fighting,” he added, without giving further details.
Hagari’s words confirm the military operation has undergone an expansion after what it had earlier described as two “targeted raids,” which took place on Wednesday night and Thursday night.
Both those raids saw ground forces withdraw after a few hours. However, it does not appear as though any major ground offensive aimed at seizing and holding significant amounts of the territory is yet underway. In a fresh call for Gazans to move south, the IDF spoke of an “impending” operation.
Read more: Israel continues pounding Gaza as it claims to hit 150 ‘underground targets’
