The tanks positioned themselves below an undulation of dusty land. The gentle slope of the terrain made the Israeli Merkava tank invisible from the Gaza Strip, a handful of kilometers to the west. On Friday, October 13, the enclave is now the target of their 120-mm cannon fire. Between shots, the upright steel mounts swiveled gently. If you climb the mound, you'd be able to see, on the other side, shells raining down on buildings in the nearby territory where a constant deluge of Israeli fire is raining down from the sky and the ground.

The Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) deployment to the south of Israel, on the outskirts of Gaza, could lead to an invasion of the enclave and is becoming more imposing by the day, a week after the Hamas attack from the area on October 7. The attack struck civilian and military targets, killing 1,300 Israelis and taking at least 120 hostages.

On Saturday morning, a 24-hour ultimatum issued the day before to more than a million residents of northern Gaza, urging them to flee their homes and take refuge in the south expired, raising the threat of large-scale action, in addition to the bombardments already carried out by planes, artillery or drones. So far more than 1,900 people have died because of the strikes.

But it's not yet clear if Israeli officials about to order a massive influx of troops into Gaza. On Friday evening, Daniel Hagari, the IDF's spokesperson, declared that certain forces had carried out "in the last twenty-four hours" commando-type infiltration operations into the territory in order to search for "terrorists," "weapons," and to carry out activities in connection with "missing persons."

More conventional strength

Although the exact shape of Israel's operation in Gaza is not yet known, preparations for ground intervention have advanced. Along the Strip, which has been under blockade since 2007, groups of armored vehicles numbering in the dozens have become more and more numerous. They can be found in places sheltered from possible rocket fire from the enclave, in the open countryside and near-deserted infrastructure. A fairly wide area around Gaza has been emptied of its civilians. In the midst of this dispersed arrangement, giant bulldozers paved the roadsides to open up traffic lanes for the tanks. Many of these armed force bases seemed to be completing their deployment process, in anticipation of the next phase.

On a plain less than ten kilometers from Gaza to the north, a diverse array of forces was also in marching order. On Friday, some fifty armored personnel carriers were lined up in several columns, supported by some fifteen tanks, bulldozers and trucks carrying supplies and fuel. The armored group was directed toward the enclave.

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