The Israeli military reported that following more than two weeks of deadly airstrikes, Israeli troops and tanks conducted a brief ground operation into northern Gaza overnight into 26 October. They destroyed multiple terrorist targets with the aim of “preparing the battlefield” for a widely anticipated full-scale ground assault.
According to the Israel Defense Force, the raid was led by the Givati infantry brigade, and it was part of preparing the border area for the “next stages of the war,” referring to the full ground offensive promised by Israeli officials. They added that the troops struck numerous terrorists, infrastructure, and anti-tank guided missile launch positions during the brief operation, and “operated to prepare the battlefield.” No injuries were immediately reported on either side.
While the IDF is conducting localised raids daily near the border areas to search for bodies of missing Israelis and also to clear the ground of any explosives left behind by Hamas terrorists after the October 7 attack, this ground invasion went beyond that. The brief discussion went deep into the Gaza Strip, unlike the searches that take place around the border, the military said.
Israel has said that following the targeted air strikes, it will launch a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip especially Northern Gaza including Gaza City, to ‘wipe out’ Hamas from the enclave. While IDF had positioned tanks and troops along the border days after the terror attack, the ground invasion has been delayed due to various reasons.
On 13 October, Israel warned residents of north Gaza to move to South Gaza within 24 hours, to the south of a stream named Wadi Gaza, ahead of the ground operations. However, Hamas appealed to Palestinians not to leave their homes, and even actively prevented them from evacuating to the south. Israel has said that Hamas is not allowing civilians to leave to use them as human shields.
Apart from this, there was pressure from the international community on Israel to postpone the operation. Given that almost half of residents in Gaza live in north Gaza, UN officials said that it is not possible to evacuate 1.1 million people in just a day. Given the concerns about civilians still present in the north, IDF didn’t launch the ground invasion. IDF has been urging the residents of Gaza to evacuate multiple times for their own safety.
However, Israel’s patience has run out, and on 22 October, it issued a final warning to the Palestinians still in north Gaza to leave immediately to south Gaza. In a leaflet dropped in Gaza, Israel warned that if the residents fail to comply with the instructions, they could be perceived as supporters of a “terrorist organisation”.
The message in the leaflet said, “Urgent warning to residents of Gaza. Your presence north of Wadi Gaza puts your life in danger. Whoever chooses not to leave North Gaza to move to the south of Wadi Gaza might be identified as an accomplice in a terrorist organisation.”
Apart from the leaflet, audio messages were sent to the mobile phones of the people living across the Gaza Strip, issuing the same warning.
In the meanwhile, a report by Wall Street Journal claims that Israel has agreed to delay the ground invasion at the request of the US government. As per the report, the US is sending missile defence systems to the region and has requested Israel to delay the operation till the systems arrive. The Pentagon is deploying around a dozen air defence systems to the region to protect civilians and its troops positioned in the region. The United States has sent a significant amount of naval power to the Middle East in recent weeks, including two aircraft carriers, their support ships and about 2,000 Marines.
Israel has said that its war against Hamas is aimed at destroying the Iran-backed terror group’s infrastructure and has vowed to dismantle the organization after the October 7 massacres, while minimizing harm to Gaza’s civilians.
Even as Israeli forces are preparing for a ground attack, airstrikes targeting Hamas sites have continued. Yesterday Israeli jets struck over 250 sites belonging to Hamas, including infrastructure, command centers, tunnels, and rocket launchers, the army said. Navy forces also struck a Hamas surface-to-air missile launch position that was situated next to a mosque and kindergarten, in Khan Younis, Gaza.
Israeli Air Force sources have said that more than 10,000 sites belonging to Hamas and other terror groups have been struck since the beginning of the war following the 7 October terror attack.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said that over 6500 people have been killed in the Israeli strikes, and most of them are civilians including children. However, the numbers given by Hamas can’t be verified independently. On the other hand, over 1400 people were killed in the Hamas terror attack in Israel. Hamas also continues to keep over 200 people hostage, who were abducted after the October 7 attack.
