Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant (AFP)
Middle East
After Israel expanded its ground operations in the Gaza Strip, sending tanks and infantry at night, supported by intense air strikes from the air, sea and land, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant confirmed that the war had entered a new phase.
He said in a video clip broadcast today, Saturday, after a meeting with the Chief of Staff, General Herzi Halevy and senior members of the security establishment, that the ground in the Gaza Strip was shaken by the operations launched by the army last night .
He also clarified that ground operations in Gaza will continue until another order to the contrary is issued. “We have passed a phase of the war: the earth shook in Gaza. We attacked both above ground and underground, and we attacked terrorist elements at all levels and in all places,” Gallant said.
The most violent attack
These statements came after a nighttime incursion into the 3-axis north-east sector, described as the largest and most important, and was accompanied by airstrikes carried out by 100 planes, the most violent since the beginning of the war. .
The planes also bombed 150 targets, the Israeli army confirmed, confirming that its forces are still in those locations: Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun (north) and east of the Bureij camp (center).
While the Palestinian Civil Defense announced that recent raids have destroyed hundreds of buildings in the Gaza Strip and razed them to the ground.
An Israeli tank from Gaza (AFP)
It’s like an earthquake
While Palestinians in Gaza described what happened between Friday night and Saturday as similar to an earthquake.
Alaa Mahdi (54), from the Beach camp in the Gaza Strip, described the destruction in the camp following Israeli bombing as an “earthquake”. And he adds: “What happened on the beach was more violent than an earthquake. If it had been a divine earthquake, it would have been less than that caused by naval, artillery and air bombardments. They all bombed the poor people… . This is a massacre, it is a humane execution,” Agence France-Presse reported.
He also added: “If the countries had fought together, all this destruction would not have happened.”
The raids destroyed many buildings and created huge craters in the completely destroyed streets.
While the entire industry fell into complete isolation after the disruption of communications and internet services.
While the death toll has risen to more than 7,700, according to the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health, amid warnings issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, that “any large-scale Israeli ground operation in Gaza could lead to “the killing of thousands more civilians.”