CNN –
The Israeli military said it would step up its air strikes on Gaza and carried out an airstrike on an alleged militant compound beneath a mosque in the occupied West Bank, signaling it was preparing for a new phase of the war against Hamas.
As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) prepares for a possible ground operation, it has amassed a large force outside the Gaza Strip and has bombarded the densely populated enclave with almost continuous airstrikes since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7.
“We will step up our attacks, minimize the risk to our troops in the next phases of the war and intensify attacks starting today,” Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said on Saturday, adding that there would be a ground offensive in Gaza would be launched if the conditions are right.
“We continue to destroy terrorist targets in advance of the next phase of the war and remain focused on our readiness for the next phase,” he said.
The IDF launched an airstrike on the Al-Ansar mosque in Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday, which it said was used by militant groups to plan “an imminent terrorist attack.” It could not be said whether the attack was carried out by a jet, which would be the first fighter jet attack in the West Bank in nearly two decades.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus and IDF spokespersons told CNN the military had intelligence “suggesting an impending attack was coming from a joint Hamas-Islamic Jihad force” that was preparing from an underground command center beneath the mosque .
Three people were killed in the Israeli attack, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Violence has erupted in the occupied West Bank since the war broke out two weeks ago, where Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces and settlers.
Two people were killed in clashes in the West Bank cities of Toubas and Nablus, bringing the death toll in the occupied Palestinian territories to at least 90 since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Sunday.
In pictures: The deadly clashes in Israel and Gaza
In Gaza City, the IDF dropped leaflets in Arabic warning residents to evacuate to the south or risk being viewed as “partners of the terrorist organization,” according to a CNN translation .
In a statement, the IDF confirmed it had dropped the leaflets but said there was “no intention to consider those who were not evacuated from the affected combat area as members of the terrorist group.”
The IDF “treats civilians as such and does not target them,” the statement continued.
Israeli warplanes have bombed Gaza, leveling entire neighborhoods, including schools and mosques. Israel says it is attacking Hamas targets and that the group has used civilians as human shields.
According to the Hamas-run government media office in Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 4,300 people in Gaza as of Saturday, including hundreds of women and children.
More than a million residents in the northern Gaza Strip have been ordered by Israel to leave their homes and move south.
Israel has also ordered the evacuation of more than 20 hospitals in northern Gaza where thousands of patients are being treated, according to the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. The order could amount to a death sentence.
“We don’t have the resources to evacuate them safely. Most of the patients have life-threatening injuries,” Nebal Farsakh, a Red Crescent spokesman, told CNN on Sunday, adding that hospitals “are at risk of being bombed any second due to Israeli evacuation orders.” The organization said on Friday that the Israeli military had issued three evacuation orders for Al-Quds Hospital.
The IDF has said it is not targeting hospitals, although the UN and Doctors Without Borders say Israeli airstrikes have hit medical facilities, including hospitals and ambulances.
Israel has not given a timetable for the possible ground offensive on Gaza, but military officials have repeatedly told troops that an invasion is imminent.
Israeli military chief of staff Herzl Halevi told IDF commanders on Saturday that the military would launch an operation to “destroy” Hamas.
“We will invade the Gaza Strip. “We will undertake an operational and professional task to destroy Hamas operatives and infrastructure,” the chief said in a statement to the IDF’s Golani Brigade.
The United States and its allies have urged Israel to be strategic and clear about its objectives in any ground invasion of Gaza. They warned against a longer occupation and placed particular emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties.
During his visit to Israel last week, US President Joe Biden asked “some tough questions” about Israel’s ground invasion strategy, a senior US official told CNN, adding: “We don’t give instructions to the Israelis, the timetable is in their hands – in their considerations.” their planning.”
Meanwhile, the US military is sending more missile defense systems to the Middle East and deploying additional US troops to the Middle East in response to escalations in the region in recent days.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday he had “activated the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional Patriot battalions to locations throughout the region to increase force protection for U.S. forces.”
The order for troops to prepare for deployment is intended to “increase their readiness and ability to respond quickly if necessary,” he said.
Both the THAAD and Patriots systems are air defense systems designed to fire short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles.
Conditions in Gaza have become increasingly dire after two weeks of bombing and a full-scale siege by Israel, unleashed in response to a Hamas rampage that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.
Hamas militants have also kidnapped about 210 people as hostages in Gaza, according to an estimate released by the IDF on Saturday. Two American hostages, a mother and her 17-year-old daughter, were released Friday.
On Saturday, the first convoy of 20 trucks carrying food, water, medicine and medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing after intensive diplomatic efforts to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Another 17 aid trucks were preparing to enter the strip via the Rafah border crossing on Sunday, the Egyptian Red Crescent said.
“God willing, I’ll enter the crossing now, or in a few minutes. “God willing, we will deliver this aid and get in and out safely, God willing,” Ali Shousha, one of the drivers waiting to cross into Gaza, told CNN.
But aid workers and international leaders have warned that much more is needed to address the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in the enclave, which is home to more than two million people.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that “the needs are far greater” than the aid that the people of Gaza have been receiving.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said the first aid convoy covered “only 3% of the daily health and humanitarian needs that entered the Gaza Strip before the aggression.”
From Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative, said Gaza needed “7,000 trucks of emergency aid,” adding: “20 trucks won’t really make a difference.”
None of those 20 trucks brought fuel to the enclave, a concern because aid groups say it is needed to run hospitals and desalinize or treat water.
Citing acute shortages of food, water, electricity and medical supplies that are pushing the lives of civilians in Gaza “to the brink of catastrophe,” the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said it urgently needed $74 million to maintain its emergency response in Gaza for the next 90 days.
The appeal came Saturday in a Palestinian Territory situation report that said the coastal enclave has less than a week’s worth of food supplies and that the ability to replenish those supplies is “jeopardized by damaged roads, security concerns and fuel shortages.” be.
Three WFP trucks were part of the convoy that entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing on Saturday. Another 40 WFP trucks are waiting in Al-Arish, Egypt, to enter the Gaza Strip, the report said.
As it prepares for the next phase of the war, the Israeli military has warned other regional actors against interfering in the conflict.
Conricus, the IDF spokesman, said Sunday that the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is “playing a very dangerous game” that could drag Lebanon “into a war from which it will gain nothing.”
Conricus said Hezbollah attacked Israeli positions near the border with Lebanon, resulting in civilian and military casualties.
In response, the IDF used tanks, drones, artillery and infantry to attack various Hezbollah infrastructure as well as Hezbollah squads with anti-tank missiles, he added.
On Sunday, the Israeli Defense Ministry and the IDF announced the expansion of a state-sponsored evacuation plan to 14 more communities in northern areas near the border with Lebanon. The voluntary evacuation was initially carried out for 28 communities on Monday. By Friday, around 123,000 civilians had been evacuated from their homes in northern and southern Israel.
Meanwhile, the Syrian state news agency, citing an unnamed military source, reported that Israel attacked airports in the capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo around 5:25 a.m. Sunday morning, damaging runways and disabling both. The agency reported that one worker was killed and another injured at Damascus airport and all air traffic was diverted to the city of Latakia.
The IDF told CNN it had no comment on the report.