The Israeli military has vowed to intensify its attacks on the Gaza Strip after the enclave’s health ministry said 266 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours.
Israeli Defence Forces spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the country planned to step up its airstrikes starting Saturday as they prepare for an imminent ground invasion of the territory.
“We will deepen our attacks to minimize the dangers to our forces in the next stages of the war. We are going to increase the attacks, from today,” Hagari said.
It comes as Gaza’s Health Ministry said 266 Palestinians, including 117 children, had been killed by Israeli air strikes over the past day in the enclave, to which Israel laid “total siege” after a deadly mass infiltration into Israel by Hamas gunmen on 7 October.
Meanwhile, a second humanitarian aid convoy of around 19 trucks is set to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing, security and humanitarian sources have said. On Saturday, the 20 trucks that arrived in the Strip were the first allowed into the territory since Israel sealed it off.
Israeli troops have carried out live fire drills “in preparations for the next stage of war”, footage released by the Israeli army on Saturday showed.
Hamas said it fired rockets towards Tel Aviv on Saturday in response to Israeli air strikes that Gaza’s Health Ministry and Hamas media said killed at least 50 people and injured dozens.
Amid mounting international concern the conflict could widen into a regional war, Blinken on Saturday cautioned Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in a call that the Lebanese people would be affected if his country were drawn in, the State Department said.
Israeli aircraft struck a compound beneath a mosque in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank early on Sunday
At least 84 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces since the Oct. 7 Hamas rampage, Palestinian officials say.
