Gaza under blackout as Israel declares new phase in war

JERUSALEM – Gaza was largely cut off from the outside world on Saturday after Israel

rained more bombs from the air

and suggested that its long-promised ground offensive against Hamas militants controlling the Palestinian enclave had begun.

This comes after the UN General Assembly called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Gaza. The non-binding resolution on Friday received overwhelming support, including from Singapore, but Israel and the United States voted against it.

Israel said on Saturday morning that its troops, sent in on Friday night, were still in the field, whereas previously, it had made only brief sorties during three weeks of bombing to destroy

Hamas who it said killed 1,400 Israelis

, mostly civilians, on Oct 7.

“We moved to a new phase in the war,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video statement. “We
attacked above the ground and underground, we attacked terror operatives of all ranks, everywhere.

The operation will continue until a new order.

”The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief of general staff Herzi Halevi, in a video statement on Saturday night, said: “The objectives of this war require a ground operation - the best soldiers are now operating in Gaza.”

He added: “In order to expose and destroy the enemy, there is no other way than to enter its territory with force.”

Israel’s military renewed a call for civilians to move south from the north, where it says Hamas is hiding under civilian buildings. Palestinians say nowhere is safe.

Gaza has been under an almost complete communications blackout since Friday evening, which the Palestinian Red Crescent blamed on Israel.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel would allow lorries with food, water and medicine to enter Gaza, indicating that bombing might pause, at least in the area of its border with Egypt where some aid has trickled in.

Aid agencies have said a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Gaza, whose 2.3 million people are under a total Israeli blockade.

The health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza have said 7,650 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel’s bombardment began.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the blackout was blocking ambulances and evacuations of patients and denying people safe shelter.

He and other aid agencies said they could not contact their staff, but a representative from the international committees of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Red Crescent in Gaza got an audio message out.

Mr William Schomburg said medics were working around the clock while also dealing with personal tragedies. “I spoke to one doctor who had lost his brother and cousin the night before,” he told the BBC in a clip the ICRC posted on X.

Video from the Israeli side of the heavily fortified fence on Saturday morning showed explosions sending up clouds of smoke among a line of ruined buildings.

Al Jazeera, which broadcast live satellite TV footage overnight showing frequent blasts in Gaza, said Israeli air strikes had hit areas around the enclave’s main hospital, Al Shifa, in Gaza City in the north.

Israel’s military accused Hamas on Friday of using the hospital as a shield for its tunnels and operational centres, an allegation the group denied. Reuters could not verify reports of strikes near the hospital.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said it was particularly worried about patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter there and at other health facilities.

An Al Jazeera correspondent, reporting live on Saturday morning, said that after a night of heavy bombardment, Palestinians were taking the dead and injured to hospital in their cars.

Some of the relatives of people captured in Israel during the Oct 7 Hamas assault demanded an urgent meeting with the Israeli government after what they called “the most terrible of all nights”.

“None of the war Cabinet bothered to meet the families of the hostages to explain one thing – whether the ground operation endangers the well-being of the 229 hostages in Gaza,” the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum headquarters said.

Mr Gallant said he would meet family representatives of the hostages on Sunday.

The hostages include children and the elderly, and many people with foreign passports. Four women have been released so far.

Another relative of the hostages, Mr Yosi Shnaider, had said earlier that Israel’s military operation was the only way to release them. “We can’t wait any more,” he added.

There has been growing speculation that a Qatari-brokered deal to release more hostages was imminent, but Rear-Adm Hagari said Hamas was cynically manipulating the situation.

“When the information (on any hostage release) is in our hands, we will give it,” he told the news briefing.

Israel said rockets were still being fired at it from Gaza.

It also released footage of its ground forces, including a column of tanks, operating inside the territory, though it did not specify when it was from.

Fighter jets killed the head of Hamas’ aerial wing, Asem Abu Rakaba, a key figure in the Oct 7 attack on Israel’s southern towns, it said.

“He directed the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts,” the Israeli military said.

Fighter jets had also struck 150 underground targets in the northern Gaza Strip, including Hamas tunnels, underground combat spaces and other underground infrastructure, killing others from the group.

The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, said early on Saturday that its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gaza’s north-eastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij.

“The al-Qassam Brigades and all the Palestinian resistance forces are completely ready to confront (Israel’s) aggression with full force and thwart the incursions,” it added.

UN assembly backs call for humanitarian truce

On Friday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution drafted by Arab states calling for an immediate humanitarian truce and demanded aid access to Gaza and protection of civilians.

While not binding, the resolution carries political weight, reflecting the global mood. It passed to a round of applause with 121 votes in favour – including Singapore’s – while 44 abstained and 14 – including Israel and the United States – voted no.

Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN, Mr Burhan Gafoor, said

the Republic expressed its support

for the efforts of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to sustain the flow of humanitarian aid and calls for all innocent civilian lives to be protected in Gaza.

The US and other Western countries have offered strong support to Israel but had urged it to hold off on a ground offensive for fear that high casualties among Palestinians would fuel wider conflict.

Hamas is backed by Iran, which also supports militias in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

US troops have come under fire from Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria, and Washington has been moving more military assets to the region.

The Israeli military said it had stopped a missile fired from Lebanon at one of its drones and was striking the launch site, the latest in what have been the most serious clashes on the border since 2006.

Israel’s neighbour Egypt said drones fell on the country on Friday and warned against any expansion of the conflict.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby would not comment on the expanded ground operation.

But he said Washington supported Israel’s right to defend itself, and added: “We’re not drawing red lines for Israel.”

He said the US supported a pause in Israeli military activity in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians there.

He also said that if getting more than 200 hostages abducted by Hamas out of Gaza required a localised temporary pause, the US supported that. REUTERS