Status: 27.10.2023, 20:04 PM
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This undated video still image provided by the Israel Defense Forces shows Israeli tanks in the Gaza Strip. © Uncredited/Israeli Defense Forces/AP/dpa
For days, it has been expected that an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip against the Islamist Hamas will begin. Now, after massive bombing raids, the military is announcing plans to do so.
Tel Aviv - Israel's army has announced that it will expand its ground operations in the Gaza Strip against the Islamist Hamas. This was announced by military spokesman Daniel Hagari in the evening on Platform X, formerly Twitter. In the last few hours, the military has already intensified its attacks in the Gaza Strip. Underground targets and terrorist infrastructure are increasingly being attacked, he continued.
It was initially unclear whether the announcement marked the beginning of the Israeli military's widely anticipated ground offensive. The Israeli military had previously made sporadic advances on the ground for a limited period of time.
Media reports in the evening pointed to massive Israeli bombing raids in the Gaza Strip. According to reports, the internet also failed in the cordoned-off coastal strip with more than two million inhabitants. In a post on platform X, the Internet monitor Netblocks also spoke of a breakdown in Internet connections.
More than 7,1400 people were killed in Israel in a terrorist attack by Hamas in the border area with the Gaza Strip on October 200. More than 300 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip. Since then, Israel has been massively bombing targets in the Gaza Strip. In addition, the military mobilized some 000,<> reservists and massed forces near the Gaza Strip for a possible ground offensive.
The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to 7326,3038 since the war began, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry. Among them are said to be 1792 children and adolescents as well as <> women, as the ministry announced on Friday. Initially, the figures could not be independently verified.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US. Dpa