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Israeli military says expanding Gaza ground operations, internet cut off

A view shows smoke in the Gaza Strip as seen from Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, October 18, 2023. (Reuters)

Israeli military says expanding Gaza ground operations, internet cut off. Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari

Israel launching a ground war on the Gaza Strip will be “a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi

Global internet monitor NetBlocks reported “a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel,” Jawwal’s owner, citing live network data.

 TEL AVIV + GAZA  ( Web News )

“In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised news briefing.

He said the air force was conducting extensive strikes on tunnels and other infrastructure.

“In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight,” he said, raising expectations that the long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza may be beginning.

Israeli forces have massed outside Gaza, where Israel has been conducting an intense campaign of aerial bombardment since a deadly October 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Hamas on Friday called on the world to “act immediately” to stop Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

“We call on the Arab and Muslim countries and the international community to take responsibility and act immediately to stop the crimes and series of massacres against our people,” Hamas said in a statement.

Hamas’ armed wing said Friday it was fighting Israeli forces in two areas inside Gaza, after Israel said it had extended ground operations in the Palestinian territory.

“We are confronting an Israeli ground incursion in Beit Hanoun (in the northern Gaza Strip) and in east Bureij (in the center) and violent engagements are taking place on the ground,” the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

Hamas is “ready” for an Israeli invasion of Gaza over the October 7 attacks, a top official of the Palestinian group said late Friday after Israel announced it would extend its ground operation.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Friday the outcome of Israel launching a ground war on the Gaza Strip will be “a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.”

“Israel just launched a ground war on Gaza. Outcome will be a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions for years to come,” Safadi said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Voting against Arab UNGA resolution means approving this senseless war, this senseless killing,” he added.

“Millions will be watching every vote. History will judge.”

Earlier on Friday, Palestinian mobile phone service provider Jawwal said that services including phone and internet had been cut by heavy bombardment.

A statement from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had completely lost contact with its operations room in Gaza and all its teams operating on the ground.

The Hamas government said Israel cut communications and most of the internet” across the Gaza Strip on Friday.

The government’s media office accused Israel of taking the measure “to perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea.”

Global internet monitor NetBlocks reported “a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel,” Jawwal’s owner, citing live network data.

“The company is the last remaining major operator to supply service as connectivity declines amid ongoing fighting with Israel,” NetBlocks wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Israel says it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the US and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

Israel says Hamas killed some 1,400 people including children in its October 7 rampage.

The health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said 7,326 Palestinians had been killed in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, including around 3,000 children.

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