Israeli forces and tanks launched a brief ground raid into northern Gaza overnight on Thursday, bombing multiple Hamas positions to “prepare the battlefield” for a widely expected ground incursion after more than two weeks of destructive air attacks.
The ground raid comes after the UN warned that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of running out of fuel, thus drastically hampering humanitarian efforts in the area, which has been under total siege since Hamas’ deadly attack in southern Israel started the conflict earlier this month.
Israel Launches Ground Attack
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) declared it carried out a “targeted raid” with infantry forces and tanks in the northern Gaza Strip overnight.
IDF said troops only targeted militants, insurgent infrastructure, and anti-tank missile launch locations during the overnight attack. There were no reports of injuries on either side at the moment.
The military released a video of the overnight operation, which showed armoured vehicles driving across a sandy border zone. A bulldozer is seen lowering a portion of a raised bank as tanks fire rounds and explode near or amid a row of damaged buildings.
According to a military statement released online, the incursion was carried out “in preparation for the next stages of combat,” a possible reference to the large-scale invasion that Israeli authorities have warned of as part of the fight to destroy Hamas.
“The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory,” the statement noted.
In preparation for the next stages of combat, the IDF operated in northern Gaza.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 26, 2023
IDF tanks & infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts.
The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory. pic.twitter.com/oMdSDR84rU
Meanwhile, early on Thursday, an airstrike damaged a residential block in Khan Younis, a southern Gazan town. Ambulances rushed into the neighbouring Nasser Hospital, but no official information on casualties was released. Family members claimed that the facility housed 75 people, including 25 displaced relatives.
Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
Reports suggest that Gaza’s population has also run out of food, water, and medication. Approximately 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians have fled the area, nearly half of them crowded into UN shelters.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel’s directive to evacuate to the south, which warns that people choosing to stay back might be labelled “accomplices” of Hamas.
We’re extremely distressed that critical @UNRWA ops in Gaza are at risk due to critical fuel shortages. Fuel aid must be permitted to operate generators essential for hospitals, sanitation, water treatment, food & UN work in helping civilians & protecting human rights across Gaza pic.twitter.com/UKMMtOh4fn
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) October 25, 2023
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that about 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing war. This figure includes the disputed toll from a hospital explosion last week.
Recently, Israel has let more than 60 trucks carrying supplies from Egypt into Gaza, which aid workers say is insufficient and just a tenth of what was brought in before the war. However, Israel is still preventing fuel delivery, which is required to run generators, because it believes Hamas might seize them.
William Schomburg, head of the sub-delegation in Gaza, said, “This is a small amount of what is required, a drop in the ocean if you will, given the severity of the consequences of the violence in the last two and a half weeks.”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been sharing its fuel supply so that trucks can deliver aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinated, and hospitals can keep incubators, life support machines, and other critical equipment operational.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that more than half of Gaza’s basic healthcare facilities and nearly one-third of its hospitals are no longer operational.