The Israeli military will launch its ground invasion tonight, government officials announced Friday.
Ground forces are “expanding their operations tonight” and are “acting with great force… to achieve the objectives of war,” Israel Defense Forces Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters shortly after Gaza lost power and internet access — leaving millions without the ability to communicate with the outside world as rockets continued to blare overhead.
“The IDF is operating in all dimensions to accomplish the goals of the war,” he said as he urged Palestinians to move to the southern part of the Gaza Strip “where it is much safer.”
Hagari added that he suggests “not to pay attention to the rumors” that a ground invasion was delayed in an effort to free hostages, calling it a “cynical exploitation by Hamas.”
His announcement came after Gaza City was hit with “unusual, intense and sustained” explosions Friday night, according to CNN’s Nic Robertson.
“There have been huge rounds of outgoing tank fire from where we are,” he reported from Sderot, adding, “Round after round of artillery fire going into Gaza as well. Multiple impacts reported in Gaza and Gaza City.”
Hours earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed that the Jewish state would launch a “long and difficult” ground offensive soon in its efforts to destroy Hamas.
He said the military is preparing for a campaign that would require dismantling a vast network of underground tunnels in the country’s efforts to “dismantle Hamas.”
“We are responding with fire and creating the conditions for the ongoing war,” Gallant said, according to the Guardian. “There will also be other stages.”
“We are preparing them, and we will carry them out,” he vowed. “I am determined to deliver victory.”
But Gallant noted a ground invasion would “take a long time” and would be followed by lower-intensity fighting in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces destroy “pockets of resistance.”
The Israeli government has been ramping up its military presence on the southern border since last week — when photos taken by Reuters on Friday showed several Israeli tanks and other military equipment lining the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of thousands of troops were also lined up along the border awaiting the order to invade the Gaza Strip.
But the Israeli government delayed its ground operation amid negotiations with Hamas officials to free some 200 Israeli civilians it took hostage in its surprise attack on Oct. 7.
Instead, the Israeli military conducted “targeted” attacks on the Gaza Strip, carrying out a second consecutive ground raid Thursday night, when armored vehicles and aircraft descended on an area outside of Gaza City.
The decision to “expand” the ground operations was finally made Thursday night when talks on a possible hostage release reached a stalemate, officials told Axios.
By Friday, the Hamas government announced on Friday that Israel “cut communications and most of the Internet,” Al Arabiya reports.
It accused Israel of taking the measure to “perpetuate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea” after Israeli officials told the AFP it is “continually striking in the Gaza Strip.”
Telecommunications company Jawwal later posted on X that the power went out after an Israeli airstrike destroyed the last international cable, Hamas-run media states.
The Palestine Red Crescent, the main emergency service in Gaza, also claimed it was cut off from its operations room in the strip because of the internet blackout.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims more than 7,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, including nearly 3,000 children, were killed in airstrikes since the war began earlier this month — though those figures could not be confirmed.
This article was updated.
