Israel goes in: Ground troops storm into Gaza as air force bombards targets
Israeli ground troops attack Gaza as air force bombards targets and officials order EVERYONE living within miles of the border to go to bunkers – after tit-for-tat death toll climbed to 110 including dozens of children
- The Israel Defense Force tweeted tonight: ‘IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip’
- A military spokesman added that ‘there are ground troops attacking in Gaza, together with air forces as well’
- Benjamin Netanyahu said: ‘The last word was not said and this operation will continue as long as necessary’
- It is not clear if the offensive will be to destroy rocket sites or Hamas leaders or extended campaign to invade
- Israel called up 9,000 reservists to bolster its forces as it deployed troops to the Gaza border for the assault
Israeli ground troops have attacked Gaza as its air force bombarded targets and officials ordered everyone living within miles of the border to go to bunkers amid fears of fierce retaliation from Hamas.
Fears of an all-out war escalated in the early hours of Friday morning as the military said just after midnight that air and ground forces were attacking the Hamas-run enclave. Rocket barrages from Gaza swiftly followed.
Its statement gave no further details but military affairs correspondents who are briefed by the armed forces said it was not a ground invasion, and that troops were firing artillery from Israel’s side of the border.
Residents in northern Gaza, near the Israeli frontier, said they had seen no sign of Israeli ground forces inside the enclave but reported heavy artillery fire and dozens of air strikes.
The Israel Defense Force tweeted from its official account on Thursday night: ‘IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.’
Military spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus confirmed: ‘There are ground troops attacking in Gaza, together with air forces as well.’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted moments later: ‘I said that we would charge a very heavy price from Hamas.
‘We do it and we will continue to do it with great intensity. The last word was not said and this operation will continue as long as necessary.’
Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida said the group was not afraid of a ground invasion, saying the move would be a chance ‘to increase our catch’ of dead or captive soldiers.
It is not yet clear if any offensive will be to destroy rocket sites or Hamas leaders or part of an extended campaign to invade Gaza.
Earlier Israel called up 9,000 reservists to bolster its forces as it deployed troops to the border in preparation for the ground assault.
Relentless air strikes continued to decimate Hamas strongholds in the Strip on Thursday as their brigades held funerals for slain commanders, including the terror boss of Gaza City and their intelligence chief.
Meanwhile three rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel but reportedly fell into the Mediterranean without injuring anyone.
Local media said they were fired by one of the Palestinian factions in Lebanon and that it was not the start of Hezbollah getting involved in the conflict.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing the prospect of a war on two fronts as internal rioting by Jewish and Arab mobs descended into ‘lynchings’ in the worst civil unrest for decades.
Hamas requested a ceasefire on a ‘mutual basis’ late on Wednesday after firing more than 1,600 rockets into densely populated Israeli neighbourhoods, killing seven civilians including a five-year-old boy.
Netanyahu rejected the peace offering despite growing international alarm at the rising civilian death toll after over 600 air strikes on Hamas targets – 103 Palestinians have been killed, including 27 children and 11 women.
An explosion lights the sky following an Israeli air strike on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 14 as the violence continues
An Israeli 155mm self-propelled howitzer, loaded on a trailer, arrives at a position along the Israel-Gaza border on Thursday
Palestinian families are pictured in a street after evacuating their homes east of Gaza City on May 13 due to heavy shelling by the Israeli military
Palestinian families are pictured in a street after evacuating their homes east of Gaza City late on Thursday evening amid shelling
Smoke and flames rise after Israeli forces launched ground, sea and air attacks towards Gaza Strip overnight
Israeli firefighters battle a field fire after a rocket launched from Gaza strip struck last night in Ramla
Rockets are fired towards Israel from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after Israel pounded Gaza and deployed extra troops to the border
An explosion lights the sky following an Israeli air strike on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip last night
An Israeli air strike on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip lights up the sky as the conflict continues to rumble on
Smoke and flames rise after Israeli forces launched ground, sea and air attacks towards Gaza Strip overnight
Rockets fired from Gaza fly towards Israel, as seen from Gaza City, in response to days of violent confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in Jerusalem
Smoke rises over houses in Ashkelon following a rocket attack launched from Gaza towards Ashkelon, southern Israel
Rockets are seen in the night sky fired towards Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip in the early hours of Friday
An Israeli firefighter battles a field fire after a rocket launched from Gaza strip struck overnight in Ramla, Israel
Rockets are seen in the night sky fired towards Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip in the early hours of Friday
A graphic shows some of the areas of Gaza that have been targeted by air strikes from Israeli forces over recent days
Troops were ordered to the Gaza border on Thursday in ‘various stages of preparing ground operations’, a military spokesman said, a move which recalls similar incursions during Israel-Gaza wars in 2014 and 2008-2009.
The IDF had said an infantry assault was just ‘one scenario’ which was being considered as it deployed several units to the border, including the Paratroopers Brigade, Golani Infantry Brigade and 7th Armoured Brigade.
‘The campaign is still far from over,’ a minister said after a cabinet meeting last night with Netanyahu. ‘Whatever we don’t do now, we will have to do in six months or a year from now.’
He told Israeli news site Ynet: ‘When we have hit all our targets and the other side has still not surrendered, we will launch a ground operation even though we do not seek it.’
Plans for the ground invasion were earlier being drafted for approval by Israeli Defence Force Chief of Staff Lt-Gen Aviv Kohavi later on Thursday, according to the Jerusalem Post. If they get the General’s sign off, the plans will be passed on to Netanyahu and his cabinet.
‘This will not end in the next few days,’ the cabinet minister added. ‘Israel will not stop and has no interest in stopping.
‘It is all moving in the right direction. We will act until they admit that opening fire was a mistake, just as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah did after the Second Lebanon War in 2006.’
It comes as the U.N. Security Council will publicly discuss the worsening violence between Israel and Palestinian militants on Sunday, diplomats said, reaching a compromise over U.S. objections to a meeting on Friday.
Diplomats said the United States, a close ally of Israel, had initially suggested a virtual public meeting could be held on Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday he hoped waiting a few days would allow for ‘diplomacy to have some effect and to see if indeed we get a real de-escalation,’ adding that Washington was ‘open to and supportive of a discussion, an open discussion, at the United Nations.’
Hostilities entered their fifth day overnight, with no sign of abating. Israel fired artillery and mounted more air strikes against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip amid constant rocket fire deep into Israel’s commercial centre.
The 15-member council has met privately twice this week about the worst hostilities in the region in years, but has so far been unable to agree on a public statement, diplomats said.
Such statements are agreed to by consensus, and the United States did not believe it would be helpful, they said.
All council members also have to agree to a meeting under rules guiding the body’s virtual operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the US State Department has urged citizens to ‘reconsider travel to Israel’ due to the recent surge in violence.
The travel advisory level, which had been lowered in recent weeks due to improvement in the country’s Covid-19 situation, was stepped up to Level 3, out of a maximum of four.
‘Reconsider travel to Israel due to armed conflict and civil unrest,’ the department said in a statement.
‘Rockets continue to impact the Gaza periphery and areas across Southern and Central Israel, including Jerusalem,’ it said.
‘There has been a marked increase in protests and violence throughout Israel.’
Washington was also advising that Americans ‘do not travel’ to Gaza due to ‘Covid-19, terrorism, civil unrest, and armed conflict,’ as well as avoiding the West Bank due to pandemic-related travel restrictions.
As Joe Biden and Boris Johnson made appeals for calm, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a forceful partisan condemnation – saying that Israel needed to be taught a ‘lesson’.
He told Russia’s Vladimir Putin during a phone call of the need for ‘the international community to give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson’ as he called on the UN to intervene with a ‘determined and clear message.’
The appeals fell on deaf ears as Israel and Hamas exchanged cross-border blows throughout the early hours of Thursday – sending Israelis fleeing into air raid shelters, while Palestinians evacuated their apartments.
Among the high-ranking commanders ‘neutralised’ in strikes on Wednesday were Brigadier General Bassem Issa, chief of the Gaza City Brigades, and Jamal Zabda, head of the group’s rocket unit and responsible for the improved accuracy of their projectiles.
The IDF says it has launched strikes on 650 targets, including militants, infrastructure, missile-launch sites, central banks and administrative buildings key to maintaining power in the Strip.
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Palestinian families fleeing from their homes at Al-Shati Refugee Camp, take shelter in a school as Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza Strip
Brigadier General Hidai Zilberman told reporters early Thursday: ‘Tonight we started destroying government targets in the Gaza Strip, such as central banks and internal security buildings. Hamas is beginning to discover cracks and there is pressure in the organization, even among the Gaza public who is losing its patience and sees these ruins on the eve of the holiday (Eid).’
Three tower blocks have been levelled in assaults by the Israel Air Force and the Islamists’ network of underground tunnels has been decimated by bunker buster bombs.
As well as high-ranking commanders, the IDF say they have killed another 60 Hamas militants.
Funerals for 14 slain Hamas members, including the terror chief Issa, were held at the Omari Grand Mosque in Gaza City on Thursday.
Hundreds of men were seen walking through the streets with the bodies draped in the green flags of Hamas as sobbing women and children watched from windows and balconies.
At the same time, in the Israeli settlement of Eliakim, hundreds of family members and comrades attended the funeral of 21-year-old soldier Omer Tabib.
Tabib was killed close to the border with Gaza on Wednesday by an anti-tank missile fired at his jeep.
‘Omer, my beautiful child, six years we waited for you and the patience paid off – we received a beautiful child with an eternal smile on his face,’ his mother Tali said, according to Haaretz.
‘I refuse to believe that instead of a blessing for your [finishing the army], I’m searching for words to summarise the period of your life. I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to do it. In my blackest dreams I never thought I’d reach this point. Omer, my beautiful child, give us the strength to know how to continue on.’
The fighting has sparked violent clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel, in ugly scenes which have not been witnessed for more than 20 years amid fears of a civil war.
Israeli soldiers fire an American-designed 155mm self-propelled howitzer towards the Gaza Strip from their position near the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Wednesday. It comes amid a build up of troops at the border in preparation for a possible ground invasion of the Strip
Israeli troops take cover from their bombing position as an M109 howitzer shells the Gaza Strip on Thursday
An Israeli tank crewman picks up a shell to load into the M109 howitzer during barrages on the Gaza Strip on Thursday
An Israeli artillery unit fires toward targets in Gaza Strip, at the Israeli Gaza border
Israeli troops lay down in a field during action outside the town of Sderot in southern Israel during the Gaza bombing campaign
An explosion lights the sky following an Israeli air strike on Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip early on Friday morning
Palestinian paramedics rescue the body of a dead person found in the rubble of a collapsed house belonging to the al-Tanani family, destroyed following an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip
Palestinians gather to pray around the bodies of 13 Hamas militants, killed in Israeli air strikes, during their funeral in at the al-Omari mosque in Gaza City
Smoke billows from an explosion as another air bomb (top) falls during an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip
Streaks of light are seen as Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon
A ball of fire engulfs a tower block in Gaza City early on Thursday morning as Israel presses forward with its campaign against Hamas. ‘The campaign is still far from over,’ a cabinet minister said after last night’s meeting with Netanyahu. ‘Whatever we don’t do now, we will have to do in six months or a year from now.’
A missile is seen heading for a tower block in Gaza on Wednesday, left; and an explosion rises into the sky in the early hours of this morning, right
A colossal explosion erupts as an Israeli bomb blows apart a Hamas target in Gaza City on Thursday. The pattern of the smoke and debris flying through the air suggests use of a bunker buster bomb, used to destroy the vast underground networks used by the Islamist militants
An Israeli AH-64 Apache attack helicopter releases flares near Sderot, in southern Israel on the border with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip
A Palestinian protester hurls a Molotov cocktail at Israeli police forces in the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday night as internal violence threatens to plunge Israel into a war on two fronts
Fireworks explode on the streets of Hebron in the West Bank as Palestinians riot against Israeli forces in solidarity with their brethren in the Gaza Strip
A sequence of images shows the moment an Israeli missile speeds towards a Hamas target in Gaza City on Thursday
Debris and shrapnel flies through the air as the bomb explodes on a suspected Hamas compound in Gaza City on Thursday
Palestinians gather to pray around the bodies of 13 Hamas militants, killed in Israeli air strikes, during their funeral in at the al-Omari mosque in Gaza City, on Thursday
Israeli mourners attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Omer Tabib, 21, in Elyakim in northern Israel, on Thursday. Tabib was killed by an anti-tank missile near the border yesterday
Smoke from an Israeli air strike climbs into the skies over Gaza City on Thursday as bombardments hit Hamas targets
A column of thick black smoke rises from a compound in Gaza City on Thursday as the Israeli bombing campaign continues undeterred by Hamas peace efforts
Netanyahu speaks to border police who have been deployed to the city of Lod to help keep the peace as Israel imposed a curfew following two nights of rioting
Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defence system is activated to intercept a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip
A man is seen walking down a street in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, unaware of a bomb about to explode on a compound behind him
The explosion is seen erupting as the man starts to hurry down the road in Rafah before he disappears from view in the massive dust cloud
Nine high-ranking commanders and other senior Hamas figures have been neutralised since Monday, including Brigadier General Bassem Issa and Jamal Zabda, head of the group’s rocket unit, according to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF)
Women and children watch the funeral procession for Hamas military chief of Gaza City Bassem Issa on Thursday
Relatives and Palestinians carry the body of Hamas terror chief Bassem Issa, killed a day earlier in an Israeli air stike, through the steets of Gaza City on Thursday
The body Hamas military chief Issa is borne through the streets of Gaza City, where he led Hamas’s Gaza City Brigades in the fight against Israel
Palestinians carry the bodies of Hamas militants, who were killed by Israeli forces, during their funeral in Gaza City on Thursday
The body of a Hamas militant is carried through the streets of Gaza City on Thursday as residents braced for more bombardments
Militants wrapped in the green flags of Hamas are laid inside the Omari Grand Mosque during their funeral in Gaza City on Thursday
