Reports of ground fighting came after the United Nations warned of unprecedented suffering in the Gaza Strip following weeks of relentless Israeli bombardment, and the UN General Assembly on Friday called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the territory.
The non-binding resolution received overwhelming support and was welcomed by the Islamist group Hamas.
But it was heavily criticized by Israel and the United States for not mentioning Hamas, with Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan calling it shameful.
Washington has previously said it supports a so-called humanitarian break to allow aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
“We are facing an incursion by Israeli ground forces into Beit Hanoun (in the northern Gaza Strip) and eastern Bureij (in the center), and violent clashes are taking place there,” Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.
Israeli army spokesman Major Nir Dinar told AFP: “Our troops are operating in Gaza, just like yesterday.”
Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip after Hamas gunmen stormed the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people. people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped more than 220 people, according to Israeli officials.
On Friday, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health announced that 7,326 people had already died in the Gaza Strip during Israeli strikes, including more than 3,000. of children.
“The Resistance is Ready”
As tens of thousands of troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of an expected full-scale invasion, Israeli forces also carried out limited ground incursions overnight Wednesday and Thursday.
“After the strikes of the past few days, ground forces are continuing ground operations tonight,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters on Friday.
The Israeli military also said it had sharply increased the number of strikes, and the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades platform on Telegram said it responded with rocket salvos.
Israeli fighter jets struck 150 “terrorist tunnels, underground fighting spaces and additional underground infrastructure” in overnight raids and killed several Hamas terrorists, the military said Saturday morning.
Hamas has previously said it is ready for an invasion.
“If (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu decides to enter the Gaza Strip tonight, the resistance is ready,” Ezzat al-Rishaq, a senior member of the Hamas politburo, said on the Telegram platform on Friday.
“What remains of his soldiers will be swallowed up by the land of Gaza,” he added.
Internet is down
Hamas said all internet and communications in the Gaza Strip had been cut, and accused Israel of taking the measures to “carry out bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea”.
Human Rights Watch has also warned that the near total blackout of telecommunications in the Gaza Strip could be a cover-up for mass atrocities.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said the disruption caused emergency services to be disrupted.
“We have completely lost contact with the operations department in the Gaza Strip and all our teams operating there,” said a statement on the X social network.
Lynne Hastings, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the Palestinian Territories, also emphasized on the X network that “hospitals and humanitarian operations cannot continue without connectivity.”
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, who has relatives trapped in the Gaza Strip, expressed concern about the disconnect.
“Telecommunications have been interrupted. We cannot contact our family who have been stuck in this war zone for almost 3 weeks now, he wrote to X. “We can only pray that they survive the night.”
“Stop the War”
A UN General Assembly resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip received overwhelming support with 120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions.
“Today the General Assembly issued a call to end the war,” Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
Hundreds of people were arrested in New York on Friday after police dispersed a large demonstration of mostly Jewish New Yorkers who had occupied the main concourse of Grand Central Station to protest Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, police and organizers said.
Pictures from the scene show long lines of young men standing in handcuffs and wearing black hoodies with the words “Not in our name” and “Cease fire now” printed in white.
According to the UN, more than 1.4 million people have been displaced in the overcrowded area as a result of Israeli bombardment. people, although the supply of food, water and electricity to the Gaza Strip has been almost completely cut off.
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