Israel-Hamas war live: Israeli military to expand ground operations in Gaza tonight, says IDF | Israel-Hamas war

Joanna Walters

Saudi Arabia is warning that a ground invasion of Gaza would be catastrophic, not just for Israel and the Palestinian territories but for the whole Middle East region, according to the New York Times.

The NYT cites sources familiar and says that Saudi officials have talked to US officials to communicate such a warning.

The outlet further reports of those officials:

They delivered that exhortation to senior U.S. officials in multiple conversations, according to a Saudi official and a second person with knowledge of the discussions.

One Biden administration official said it was evident that the Saudis did not want an Israeli invasion of Gaza. Saudi officials also conveyed the warnings about a ground war to American lawmakers. The U.S. official, as well as the two people familiar with the Saudi warnings, all asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the Armed Services Committee, was one of 10 senators who met last weekend with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

“The Saudi leadership was hopeful that a ground operation could be avoided for reasons of stability as well as the loss of life” and Saudi officials warned it would be “extremely harmful,” Mr. Blumenthal told The New York Times on Thursday.

The US has asked Israel to delay any invasion of Gaza, although the Israeli military has conducted some raids and says their ground operation in Gaza is expanding.

It’s 9pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. Here’s where things stand:

• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have announced they are “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari. In a televised news briefing on Friday, he warned residents of Gaza City to move south, where there will be “better conditions”.

• The IDF’s announcement came amid reports of heavy bombing of the besieged Gaza Strip, where internet and mobile phone services were cut off. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it has completely lost contact with all of its teams in the Gaza Strip.

• The IDF said they conducted another limited ground raid in Gaza earlier on Friday, in what appeared to be the second such raid in as many days. The military said ground forces raided inside Gaza, striking dozens of militant targets.

• The Israeli military has accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza for military purposes and of turning them into “hideouts for Hamas terrorists and commanders”. While it is not possible to verify the precise details of the claims by the IDF, there is evidence that Hamas has in the past taken advantage of cover provided by civilian objects, including hospitals.

• Negotiations between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Qatar, are accelerating to agree on a ceasefire and on the return of hostages held in Gaza, according to several reports.

• Israel’s minister of defence, Yoav Gallant, said the ground offensive into Gaza will be long and difficult as it will require destroying what he described as a vast network of tunnels used by Hamas militants. The ground invasion, he added, would lead to another phase of lower-intensity fighting, as Israel destroys ”pockets of resistance.”

• At least 7,326 Palestinians, including 3,038 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said in its latest update on Friday. The claims have not been independently verified.

• “Many more will die” as a result of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) chief, Philippe Lazzarini, warned at a news conference on Friday that basic services in Gaza are “crumbling”, with medicine, food and water running out.

• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its medics had entered Gaza for the first time since the outbreak of war. Six medical staff passed through the Rafah border crossing on Friday, alongside four other ICRC specialists and six aid trucks carrying urgently needed medical material and water purification supplies, an ICRC spokesperson said.

• The UN’s World Food Programme has warned that just two of their contracted bakeries – compared to 23 at the start of the war – have enough fuel to produce bread at the moment. The dwindling supply meant that “tomorrow there might be none,” WFP Representative in Palestine Samer Abdeljaber said in a statement.

• US fighter jets launched airstrikes early on Friday on two locations in eastern Syria linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Pentagon said, in retaliation for a slew of drone and missile attacks against US bases and personnel in the region that began early last week.

• EU leaders have unanimously called for humanitarian corridors and “pauses” in the Israel-Hamas war. An official declaration will be issued after a two-day summit of leaders in Brussels that wrapped up on Friday.

• Antisemitic and Islamaphobic incidents have almost doubled in just over a week in London, according to police data on Friday.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement that residents of Gaza City should move south after announcing that Israel’s ground forces are “expanding” their operations tonight. He said:

We will continue to attack in Gaza and its surroundings, and we keep calling upon the people in Gaza in the north that south from there, they have better conditions.

Hagari said aerial attacks had been targeting Hamas tunnels and other targets. The IDF “is acting with great force … to achieve the objectives of the war”, he said.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced that Israel’s ground forces are “expanding their ground operations” tonight.

“We are prepared on all fronts to preserve Israel’s security,” Hagari said during a televised statement.

More details to follow.

Two major Palestinian mobile networks, Jawwal and Paltel, said their phone lines and internet services have been cut off.

An Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from Gaza said internet and mobile phone networks all over the territory suddenly cut off about an hour ago.

Journalists such as Sky News’ Alistair Bunkall and Bel Trew from the Independent have reported struggling to reach Gaza residents:

It comes amid reports that the Palestinian territory has reportedly come under heavier airstrikes than usual on Friday.

The Israeli military has begun a particularly intense round of strikes on Gaza, the New York Times reported, citing three military officers and an Israeli government official. The barrage includes missiles fired from warplanes as well as shells fired from artillery, it said.

CNN reported seeing a large series of explosions in Gaza City and hearing outgoing tank fire as well as “unusual, intense and sustained” military activity for the past couple of hours. Residents told CNN the airstrikes tonight were the most intense they have experienced since the beginning of hostilities nearly three weeks ago.

Bethan McKernan

Gaza appears to have been hit by a total internet and communications blackout this evening, amid heavier airstrikes than usual.

It is still unlikely, however, during Shabbat, that this is a prelude to a large ground offensive.

Negotiations between Hamas and Israel, mediated by Qatar, are accelerating to agree on a ceasefire and on the return of hostages held in Gaza, the BBC has reported.

Talks are “quickly progressing”, Al Jazeera also reported.

There has been “significant progress” on negotiations to release hostages but issues still remain, diplomatic sources have told CNN. “We remain hopeful,” they said.