JERUSALEM - Israeli forces expanded their ground operations against Hamas in Gaza on Sunday, in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the second phase of a three-week-old war aimed at crushing the Palestinian militant group.
Telephone and Internet communications were partially restored in Gaza on Sunday, after a blackout lasting over a day that badly impacted rescue operations, as Israel pounded targets of Hamas, which controls the territory.
“Israel cut us off from the world in order to wipe us out, but we are hearing the sounds of explosions, and we are proud the resistance fighters have stopped them at metres’ distance,” said Mr Shaban Ahmed, a public servant who stayed in Gaza City despite an Israeli warning to evacuate south.
Mr Ahmed said that because of the blackout, he found out only on Sunday that his cousin had been killed in an air strike on Friday.
Thousands of desperate Gaza residents broke into warehouses and distribution centres of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, grabbing flour and “basic survival items”, the organisation said on Sunday.
“This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza,” UNRWA said in a statement.
Israeli Defence Force fighter jets struck over 450 military targets belonging to Hamas in Gaza, including operational command centres, observation posts and anti-tank missile launch posts, the military said.
“We are gradually expanding the ground activity and the scope of our forces in the Gaza Strip,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters. “We will do everything we can from the air, sea and land to ensure the safety of our forces and achieve the goals of the war.”
Israel will allow a dramatic increase in aid to Gaza in the coming days, and Palestinian civilians should head to a “humanitarian zone” in the south of the tiny territory, said Colonel Elad Goren from Cogat, the Israeli Defence Ministry agency that coordinates with the Palestinians.
Israel has tightened its blockade and bombarded Gaza for three weeks since Hamas’ devastating Oct 7 attack. At least 1,400 Israelis were killed in the deadliest day of the nation’s 75-year history, the Israeli authorities said.
Western countries have generally backed what they say is Israel’s right to self-defence. But there has been mounting international outcry over the toll from the bombing, and growing calls for a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid to reach Gaza civilians and ease the humanitarian crisis.
The medical authorities in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of 2.3 million people, say 8,005 Palestinians have been killed, including 3,342 minors, in Israel’s campaign to obliterate the Iran-backed militants.
Displaced Palestinians staying in tents in Gaza’s Khan Younis described dire living conditions, with little access to food and water and having to queue hours to use a toilet.
“I wish God will have mercy on us and the war stops,” said Mr Rami Al-Erqan, a Palestinian cradling his daughter, one of his six children. “We reached a state where we wish to have died under the rubble just to find some rest. Our life is torture.”
Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Mr Netanyahu warned Israelis to expect a “long and hard” campaign, but stopped short of calling the current incursions an invasion.
Some of US President Joe Biden’s aides have advised their Israeli counterparts to hold off on an immediate all-out assault, United States officials have said.
Mr Netanyahu pledged to spare no effort to free the more than 200 hostages, which include Americans and other foreigners, held by Hamas.
“This is the second stage of the war whose goals are clear – to destroy Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and to bring the hostages home,” Mr Netanyahu told reporters. “We are only at the start. We will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground.”
Israel sent troops and tanks into Gaza on Friday night, focusing on infrastructure including the extensive tunnel network built by Hamas, the Israeli military said. It provided no details on the size of the deployment.
Mr Netanyahu on Saturday reiterated Israel’s call for Palestinian civilians to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, where it was focusing its attack on what it said were Hamas hideouts and other installations.
But Palestinians say nowhere is safe, with bombs also smashing homes in the south of the densely populated territory.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk offered his SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network to support communications in Gaza for “internationally recognised aid organisations”. Israel responded that it would fight the move, saying Hamas would “use it for terrorist activities”.
Mr Netanyahu, who met family members of Hamas’ hostages on Saturday, said contacts to secure their release would continue, even during a ground offensive, and that military pressure on Hamas could help bring them home. He did not elaborate.
Qatar-mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas continued, but at a much slower pace than before Friday’s escalation in Gaza, a source briefed on the talks said.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told reporters that Israel had no interest in expanding the fighting beyond Gaza but is prepared on all fronts.
On Saturday, the crisis brought hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators out in cities around Europe, the Middle East and Asia. REUTERS
