In what may be a foretaste of the bigger operation to come, Israel launched its heaviest raid yet into the northern Gaza Strip late Wednesday, sending tanks and other armored vehicles across the border ahead of what is expected to be a full-scale invasion of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said their troops struck “numerous” terror cells, anti-tank missile launching positions and other Hamas infrastructure in preparation for what the IDF referred to as the “next stage of combat.”
“The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory,” the IDF said Thursday.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced growing pressure domestically to respond in force more than two weeks after the rampage by Palestinian militants from Gaza, while also facing warnings from the U.S., the U.N. and countries in the region to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe as it seeks to destroy Hamas — long considered by both Israel and the U.S. to be a terrorist organization — in its densely populated stronghold.
A video released by the IDF showed a bulldozer pushing aside an obstacle while tanks fired at targets inside Gaza. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an IDF spokesman, said troops also cleared landmines and destroyed sites that Hamas fighters could use to attack Israeli soldiers. On Thursday, he told CNN that the IDF had conducted similar operations over the past week but on a smaller scale.
“It was a clear-and-sweep operation intended to create better terms for ground operations,” Col. Lerner said. “We engaged the enemy, killing terrorists planning to conduct attacks against us.”
There were no reports of injured IDF troops from the overnight mission, Col. Lerner said.
Israeli officials on Thursday also said a top Hamas official was killed in an IDF air strike. Shadi Barud, deputy head of the terror group’s intelligence directorate, helped plan the October 7 rampage from Gaza across southern Israel that resulted in the death of more than 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals, mostly civilians, and resulted in hundreds of others being taken hostage.
The Hamas leader was also involved in “countless other deadly attacks carried out against Israelis,” the IDF said in a statement.
Separately, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry in its latest casualty estimate said Thursday more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes since Oct. 7, a figure that could not be independently verified.
The United Nations has called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of more than 220 people now being held captive by Hamas since their deadly incursion into Israeli farms and settlements located near the border with Gaza.
“There is an urgent need for the captors of the hostages to provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care, and the immediate release, on humanitarian and health grounds, of all those abducted,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the UN’s World Health Organization, said Thursday in a statement.
He called on Hamas to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the hostages to assess their condition and said the WHO would be ready to provide them with health support.
Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official, complained that aid is “barely trickling” into Gaza as conditions there deteriorate.
“The world itself is failing to meet the bare entitlements of a part of humanity,” Mr. Griffiths said in a statement. “The rules of war are clear: Civilians must be protected and have the essentials to survive, wherever they are and whether they choose to move or stay.”
Iran warns U.S.
The Palestinians got a far more sympathetic hearing at a Wednesday “emergency debate” of the U.N. General Assembly, where a number of nations pressed for a full-scale cease-fire in Gaza to allow citizens to be safely relocated.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian used the session to issue a sharp warning to the U.S. and the West for their material and diplomatic support of what he called Israel’s policy of “genocide” toward the Palestinians.
“We do not welcome the expansion and scope of the war in the region, but I warn if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire,” the Iranian minister said.
In a separate development, the foreign ministers of nine Arab nations issued a joint statement condemning what they said was the targeting of civilians by Israeli forces and violations of international law. Israel has staunchly denied it targets civilians as it prepares its full-bore response to Hamas.
The Biden administration has been streaming troops, ships and military assets to the region in recent days, in part to support Israel and in part to warn off Iran and its regional allies such as Hezbollah from seeking to enter the conflict against Israel.
Pentagon officials said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has been in close communication with his Israeli counterpart, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, since the October 7 attack. The two men, both former army generals, talk on a nearly daily basis, with Mr. Austin receiving regular updates on IDF operations. They last spoke on Wednesday.
But even the Pentagon has been saying that the Israeli military move must take into account the plight of those trapped in the Gaza enclave, and the European Union on Thursday approved a resolution calling for “humanitarian corridors and pausing” in the Israeli bombing campaign to allow needed supplies to reach Gaza residents.
“During the discussion, Secretary Austin reiterated the importance of ensuring humanitarian aid can be delivered into Gaza and repeated our calls for Israel to ensure the protection of civilians,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Thursday.
About 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowding into U.N. shelters, the Associated Press reported. But hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite an order from Israel to leave and a warning that those who refused might be considered “accomplices” of Hamas.
Brig. Gen. Ryder said the U.S. is sending interceptors for the crucial Iron Dome air defense system to protect Israeli citizens against rockets fired by Hamas.
“We’re also planning to provide the two U.S. Iron Dome systems currently in our inventory to Israel to help further bolster their air defense capabilities,” Gen. Ryder said.
Israel has launched a relentless air campaign against Hamas inside Gaza since the October 7 massacre, prompting large protests in several cities around the world. Whole neighborhoods were reduced to rubble as Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas for carrying out what many have called the most extensive massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Rising death toll
Although President Biden said he doesn’t trust the civilian casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, their numbers are often cited by the U.N. and media organizations.
U.N. officials said the heaviest death toll yet from Gaza was reported Wednesday by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which said 756 were killed, including 344 children.
“With bombardments continuing, according to Gaza’s de facto authorities, some 1,600 people, including 900 children, have been reported missing and may be under the rubble,” the U.N. said in a statement.
The U.N. estimated that Gaza has about 12 days’ worth of food supplies on hand. They said 62 trucks carrying water, food, and medical supplies traveled through the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza over four days earlier this week.
“Most of this aid has already reached hospitals, ambulances and internally displaced persons. However, this daily average of trucks allowed in Gaza prior to the hostilities was about 500,” said Stephane Dujarric, an official with the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Mr. Dujarric said officials have managed to improve the water supply in areas south of Wadi Gaza where refugees have been urged to seek refuge. U.N. aid workers said they’ve also managed to deliver small quantities of fuel retrieved from their existing reserves to key facilities like hospitals.
“However, the available fuel in these facilities will be exhausted fairly soon, and the supply of piped water is expected to cease again,” Mr. Dujarric said.
• This article was based in part on wire service dispatches.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.