Israeli troops have been given more freedom to fire on potential enemies in Gaza and could be ordered to spend 18 months in the enclave and go door-to-door to root out Hamas, according to a report.
A Hamas officer told the New York Times that they planned to ambush Israeli troops from behind as soon as they entered Gaza by jumping out of hidden tunnels.
Senior Israeli officials told the newspaper that the ground offensive should have begun but was delayed because bad weather prevented air support.
The delay has given Palestinians living in the densely populated enclave more time to flee.
A spokesman told CNN that the Israel Defense Forces would not begin “significant military operations” in Gaza until all civilians had been evacuated.
“It’s really important that the people of Gaza know that we were very, very generous with our time.” “We gave enough warning, more than 25 hours,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.
“I cannot emphasize enough to say that now is the time for Gazans to leave the country.”
“Take your things and go south.” Save your lives and do not fall into the trap that Hamas sets for you.”
But they have nowhere to go: Photos emerged on Saturday showing Egyptian forces blocking the border crossing into Egypt with concrete slabs.
On Saturday, Israeli armored personnel carriers were on the move near the border with the Gaza Strip
The picture shows Palestinians waiting at the border with Egypt on Saturday, trying to get out of the enclave
Family rides a donkey-drawn cart and flees along with hundreds of other Palestinians carrying their belongings after the Israeli army urged them to leave their homes and move south
Gazans who traveled to the Rafah border crossing and were told they would be allowed to flee Gaza and cross into Egypt were left frustrated on Saturday. One woman told CNN she was told to wait at the gates because they could open at any time.
U.S. diplomats desperately tried to persuade Egypt to let U.S. citizens out of the enclave, and there were rumors that foreign passport holders would be allowed to leave the enclave.
However, Egypt remains concerned that there are permanently displaced people on its territory and is concerned about the destabilizing impact on its own country, which is experiencing a severe economic crisis.
On Thursday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Gazans must “stand firm and remain on their land.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a meeting in Amman on Friday that there should be no attempt to forcibly expel Palestinians.
His wife, Queen Rania, was born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugees and grew up in the West Bank.
Thousands of Palestinians have fled south since the order was issued, fearing an Israeli ground invasion any day.
Israel has assembled a huge force on the Gaza border, including hundreds of thousands of IDF reservists.
Since Hamas – which controls Gaza – launched its terror attack on October 7, killing 1,300 Israelis, some 2,215 people have been killed and more than 8,714 injured in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials.
More Palestinians have been killed so far in 2023 than in 2014, when more than 2,000 people were killed in a 50-day war.
Martin Griffiths, the U.N. humanitarian chief, said he feared “the worst is yet to come” and warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “rapidly becoming untenable.”
The statement added that “the past week has been a test for humanity and humanity is failing.”
Ahead of an expected Israeli invasion, cars made a desperate exodus south
Rescuers take a Palestinian boy to hospital in Gaza today after an Israeli airstrike
Palestinians who fled their homes amid Israeli attacks found refuge in a United Nations-run school in Gaza on Saturday
Palestinians wait at the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt
A Palestinian family collects their possessions on Saturday and prepares to flee the impending ground offensive
Benjamin Netanyahu is seen speaking to soldiers preparing to enter Gaza on Saturday
The Israeli leader has spoken to Joe Biden five times since the attack began a week ago
The World Health Organization called Israel’s evacuation order for hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip “a death sentence for the sick and injured.”
Israel, meanwhile, confirmed on Saturday that 258 of its soldiers had been killed.
“The system for processing fallen soldiers operates day and night,” said Eyal Krim, the top military rabbi.
He added that the process would be lengthy because “a significant number of the fallen soldiers are not easily identifiable and their identification requires the use of advanced technology.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, traveled to the Gaza border on Saturday to meet some of the 360,000 troops now stationed there ahead of the impending invasion.
The invasion of Gaza is expected to be Israel’s largest ground operation since its invasion of Lebanon in 2006.
Troops are being sent to free an estimated 150 hostages held by Hamas.
“The only way to get the hostages is a ground operation,” said Miri Eisin, a former senior military officer and director of the International Counterterrorism Institute at Reichman University in Israel.
But, she told the New York Times, the risk is immense.
“The terrorists will take these booby-trapped babies and Holocaust survivors and blow them up to show us their cruelty,” she warned.
Israeli military sources told The New York Times that the ground forces would aim to destroy Hamas’ top political and military hierarchy.
At the top of the death list was Yahya Sinwar, 60, the current head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Yahya Sinwar is pictured speaking at a meeting in Gaza City in April 2022. He is considered the mastermind of the terrorist attack on October 7th
Sinwar is seen in 2011 being hugged and kissed by Palestinians after his release from an Israeli prison
Sinwar was exchanged with hundreds of other Palestinians for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured in June 2006 and held for five years
He was arrested by Israel several times and spent 24 years in Israeli prisons. In 2011 he was released as part of a prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Sinwar is blamed for the murder of 1,300 Israelis in the October 7 attack. The U.S. death toll rose to 29 on Saturday, with 15 missing and believed to be held hostage in Gaza.
“Yahya Sinwar is the face of evil,” said Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an IDF spokesman.
“He is the mastermind behind it, just like bin Laden was.”
“He built his career on murdering Palestinians when he realized they were collaborators.” This is how he became known as the butcher of Khan Younis [in southern Gaza].’
Ground forces will include tanks, engineers and commandos, with cover provided by fighter jets, attack helicopters, aerial drones and artillery fired from land and sea, The New York Times reported.
They received additional training for operations in the heavily bombed areas of the Gaza Strip and prepared for expected Hamas ambushes and booby traps.
Three Israeli sources told the newspaper that rules of engagement had been relaxed to allow IDF forces to make quick decisions about potential enemies.
Nimrod Novik, a former senior Israeli diplomat and security adviser to the Israeli government, told the newspaper that some within the Israeli military establishment want troops to go door-to-door for 18 months to track down and kill top Hamas leaders.
“Others, I think, are much more sober and talk not about destroying Hamas, but about depriving Hamas of its ability to threaten us,” Novik said.
Israel has made little secret of its intentions and is ordering civilians to leave the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military says it is preparing for the “next phases of the war” against Hamas, which could include “air, sea and land attacks” as well as “significant ground operations.”
The effort involves hundreds of thousands of conscripted reservists and will include “a wide range of operational offensive plans,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Saturday.
In addition to the “combined and coordinated attacks,” Israeli ground forces and the military’s logistics leadership are preparing IDF forces for an “expanded combat arena,” the statement said.
Netanyahu and President Joe Biden spoke Saturday evening for the fifth time since fighting began last weekend, the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The two discussed the general situation with a focus on issues in southern Israel, Netanyahu’s office said.
He also thanked Biden for “security and intelligence” assistance to Israel, as well as quick visits from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
On Saturday, two US sources told CNN that a second strike group of aircraft carriers is moving to the region after the first – led by the USS Gerald R. Ford – arrived off the coast of Israel earlier this week.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower strike group will join the Ford after it changed its plans to turn to U.S. European Command and deploy to the Middle East instead, leaving its base in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday.
The US warships are not intended to join the fighting in Gaza or Israeli operations, Pentagon officials emphasize.
But the presence of two of the Navy’s most powerful ships is intended to send a deterrent message to Iran and its proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The USS Gerald R. Ford is the largest aircraft carrier in the world. It now lies off the coast of Israel
“Merkava” battle tanks gather today at a staging area at an undisclosed location along the Gaza border
At a Human Rights Campaign dinner in Washington on Saturday, Biden linked the humanitarian crisis in Gaza to various forms of hate that he said must be stopped.
“A week ago, we saw hatred manifest itself in a different way in the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Biden said, citing the 1,300 deaths in Israel and “children and grandparents kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas “.
“The humanitarian crisis in Gaza – innocent Palestinian families and the vast majority who have nothing to do with Hamas – are being used as human shields,” he said.
“We must reject hate in all forms.”