Israel pressed its offensive in Gaza City over the weekend, with the military saying Saturday that the Israeli Air Force had struck some 100 targets in the Gaza Strip in 24 hours.

The targets included tunnels, weapon depots, cells of operatives and other infrastructure used by terror groups.

Hamas authorities reported that at least 34 people were killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza over the previous 24 hours.

The army had warned Friday it would use “unprecedented force” in Gaza City, urging residents to flee southwards while continuing strikes and operations across the Strip.

Meanwhile, Channel 12 news reported Saturday that Israel had asked the United States to pressure Egypt over its military buildup in the Sinai Peninsula, as Jerusalem alleged Cairo was accumulating forces in the region along its border in violation of the peace treaty between the countries.

Citing US and Israeli officials, the report said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the matter with visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and that the alleged violations included the construction of runways for fighter jets and underground sites that appear to be designed for storing missiles.

The Israeli sources were quoted as saying that though there is no evidence that missiles are indeed being stored in the underground sites, Egypt has not provided satisfying answers when asked.

“What the Egyptians are doing in the Sinai is very grave and we’re very worried,” one of the sources said.

Following the outbreak of war in Gaza on October 7, 2023, Egypt constructed a concrete border wall that reaches six meters into the ground and is topped with barbed wire. It has also built berms and enhanced surveillance at border posts.

There have been repeated reports that Cairo is fearful that Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza will push masses of Palestinian refugees to attempt to break through the border into Sinai, which the nation views as a threat to its national security.

The Lebanese Al Akhbar newspaper reported Saturday, citing unnamed sources, that ahead of the IDF’s offensive to capture Gaza City, Egypt began bolstering its forces along its shared border with Gaza due to concerns that the mass evacuation of Palestinians from the north of the Gaza Strip could lead to an attempt to flee into Sinai.

Within 72 hours of such an event, Egypt would double the number of troops on the border and bring in heavy weaponry and helicopters into the Sinai, the report said.

According to the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, Israel must approve the transfer of heavy weaponry and increases in troops into the peninsula.

An Egyptian military source told the newspaper that the increase in military forces in the Sinai would deter Israel from forcing Gazans across the border.

In Gaza City, the military said the 98th Division is continuing to expand its operations and, in the past day, destroyed Hamas infrastructure, including tunnel shafts, booby-trapped buildings and positions used by terror operatives.

An IDF soldier was moderately wounded by sniper fire on the outskirts of Gaza City Saturday morning, the military said.

The soldier was taken to a hospital for treatment. Several Hamas operatives, including field commanders, were killed, the army said.

The 162nd Division, which is also operating in Gaza City and the Kafr Jabalia area, killed several more operatives — including by directing a drone strike — and destroyed Hamas infrastructure, the IDF said.

Elsewhere in northern Gaza, the IDF said the 99th Division’s forces directed strikes on several Hamas infrastructures and killed operatives.

In the Strip’s south, the Gaza Division destroyed additional Hamas sites, including tunnels, and killed several operatives in Khan Younis and Rafah.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 65,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

The war was triggered by the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel. Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of those abducted on that day. They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Among the bodies held by Hamas is an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.