Israeli forces carried out a limited ground assault into the Gaza Strip overnight, sending infantry forces and tanks into the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the military said Thursday morning.
The “targeted raid” appeared to be the most significant ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave since war broke out earlier this month, as the IDF prepares a full-scale invasion to eliminate the Hamas terror group that rules the Gaza Strip.
According to the IDF, the attack – led by the Givati Infantry Brigade and the 162nd Armored Division – was part of the border area’s preparation for the “next phases of the war,” referring to the full-scale ground offensive promised by Israeli officials.
The troops attacked “numerous” terrorists, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch sites and “operated to prepare the battlefield,” the Army said.
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The soldiers returned to Israeli territory after the raid, the IDF added.
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the operation lasted several hours and no soldiers were injured.
“Through the raid, we eliminated terrorists, neutralized threats, dismantled explosives and neutralized ambushes to enable ground forces to advance to the next phases of the war,” Hagari said.
The incursion went beyond the almost daily “local raids” that soldiers conducted in areas near the border to search for bodies of missing Israelis and clear the site of explosives left behind by Hamas terrorists in the Oct. 7 attack.
These raids are being carried out with smaller troop numbers and do not reach as deep into the Gaza Strip as Thursday’s raid.
This screenshot from handout footage released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2023 shows a “targeted raid” involving tanks and infantry in the northern Gaza Strip. (Photo by Israeli Army / AFP)
Israel says its war against Hamas is aimed at destroying the Iran-backed terror group’s infrastructure and has vowed to dismantle the organization after the Oct. 7 massacres while minimizing damage to civilians in the Gaza Strip hold.
Led by Hamas and along with other terrorist groups, about 2,500 terrorists stormed across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing about 1,400 people and taking at least 228 hostages of all ages as cover for thousands of rockets fired at Israeli cities were fired.
The IDF has called on Palestinians to evacuate south from the northern Gaza Strip as it intensifies attacks in the Gaza City area ahead of an expected major ground assault.
According to the army, Israeli fighter jets have struck over 250 Hamas sites in the past day, including infrastructure, command centers, tunnels and rocket launchers.
According to the army, marine forces also attacked a Hamas surface-to-air missile launch site located next to a mosque and a kindergarten in Khan Younis.
Israeli soldiers patrol alongside communities near the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli Air Force sources said more than 10,000 sites belonging to Hamas and other terror groups have been attacked since the war began.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, 6,546 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, were killed in the attacks. The figures released by the terror group cannot be independently verified and are believed to include its own terrorists and gunmen killed in Israel and Gaza, as well as victims of an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City on October 17, caused by a backfire Islamic Jihad rocket but Hamas has blamed Israel for it. Israel says it killed 1,500 Hamas terrorists in Israel on and after October 7.
Israeli soldiers on October 17 during the destruction of a house in Kibbutz Be’eri near the Israel-Gaza border, where Hamas terrorists killed over 100 residents on October 7, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The death toll on both sides is expected to rise significantly once Israel launches its ground offensive and begins entering cities. Troops are expected to contend with Gaza’s network of tunnels, booby traps and bombs built by terrorist groups as they fight through harsh urban environments.
Terrorists from the Gaza Strip have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since October 7, killing and injuring scores of people. Rocket fire on areas near the Gaza Strip resumed on Thursday morning after an overnight lull.
Much of the area has been evacuated by Israeli civilians but is filled with thousands of troops gathered near the Gaza border, awaiting orders to enter.
An image taken on October 26, 2023 from the southern Israeli city of Sderot shows flares fired by the Israeli army over the northern Gaza Strip as the war with Hamas continues. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday that the full ground offensive in Gaza had been delayed by “tactical and even strategic considerations.”
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Israel had agreed to a request from the United States for a temporary postponement of its planned ground attack on the Gaza Strip to give Washington more time to deploy additional air defense systems to protect its troops in the region.
The US was also reportedly concerned that Israel lacks achievable military targets for its operations in Gaza, leading to fears that the IDF was not yet ready for a ground attack.
The campaign is also understood to have been postponed to allow for extensive internationally mediated negotiations with Hamas over the possible release of hundreds of Israeli and foreign hostages it is holding. Talks led to four prisoners being released – mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Ra’anan on Friday evening and elderly women Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper on Monday evening.
An image taken from the southern Israeli city of Sderot shows rockets fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 23, 2023 (Jack Guez / AFP)
Responding to the apparent delay, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening that the ground attack was imminent, but added that he would not say when or how. He also said he did not share the range of considerations involved.
The prime minister said the aim of the offensive was to destroy Hamas and return the hostages, describing the terror group’s members as “dead men walking.”
“We are preparing for a ground attack. I will not specify when, how and how many. Nor will I go into detail about the various considerations, most of which the public is unaware of. And that’s the way it should be. “In this way, we protect the lives of our soldiers,” Netanyahu said, adding that there had been a unanimous decision on the timing of the ground operation.
On Wednesday, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas’ politburo, told a Lebanese television channel that “the fighting has not started yet.”
Times of Israel staff and agencies contributed to this report.