Battles were raging in Gaza early on Saturday, as Israel expanded its ground operations and cut communications to the Palestinian territory, three weeks after the deadliest attack in the country\u2019s history. The United Nations warned of a looming \u201cunprecedented avalanche of human suffering\u201d inside the Gaza Strip, following weeks of relentless bombing by Israel, while the General Assembly pushed for an \u201cimmediate humanitarian truce\u201d. \u201cWe are confronting an Israeli ground incursion in Beit Hanoun (in the northern Gaza Strip) and east Bureij (in the centre) and violent engagements are taking place on the ground,\u201d Hamas\u2019s armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement. Israeli military spokesman Major Nir Dinar told an international news agency: \u201cOur troops are operating inside Gaza as they did yesterday.\u201d With tens of thousands of troops massed along the Gaza border ahead of an expected full-blown invasion, Israeli forces also made limited ground incursions on Wednesday and Thursday nights. \u201cFollowing the series of strikes of the last days, the ground forces are extending the ground operations tonight,\u201d military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters Friday. Israel\u2019s military also said it had increased its strikes \u201cin a very significant way\u201d, while the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said on Telegram it responded with \u201csalvos of rockets\u201d. An international news agency\u00a0live footage late Friday showed air strike after air strike light up the night sky of northern Gaza as thick black smoke clouded the horizon. In a bombed-out street in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, 50-year-old Om Walid Basal asked why her apartment block had been bombed by Israel. \u201cThis was our house, we lived here just with our children, it was full of children,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy are they bombing us? Why are they destroying our homes?\u201d Israel launched its bombardment of Gaza after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials. The Hamas-run health ministry said Friday that Israeli strikes on Gaza had now killed 7,326 people, more than 3,000 of them children. Hamas earlier said it was \u201cready\u201d for an invasion. \u201cIf (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu decides to enter Gaza tonight, the resistance is ready,\u201d Ezzat al-Rishaq, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau, said on Telegram. \u201cThe remains of his soldiers will be swallowed up by the land of Gaza.\u201d Hamas said all internet connections and communications across Gaza had been cut, and accused Israel of taking the measure \u201cto perpetrate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea\u201d. Human Rights Watch also warned that the near-total telecommunications blackout in Gaza risks providing cover for \u201cmass atrocities\u201d. The Palestinian Red Crescent meanwhile said ambulance services had been disrupted. \u201cWe have completely lost contact with the operations room in the Gaza Strip and all our teams operating there,\u201d it said on X, formerly Twitter. Lynne Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, also said on X that Gaza \u201chas lost contact with the outside world\u201d, cautioning that \u201chospitals & humanitarian operations can\u2019t continue without communications\u201d. UN truce call The reports of ground fighting came after the UN General Assembly called on Friday for an \u201cimmediate humanitarian truce\u201d in Gaza. The nonbinding resolution received overwhelming support and was welcomed by Hamas. But it was harshly criticised by Israel and the United States for failing to mention Hamas, with Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan calling it an \u201cinfamy\u201d. Washington earlier said it supports a \u201chumanitarian pause\u201d so aid can get into Gaza. Israel\u2019s bombardment has displaced more than 1.4 million people inside the crowded territory, even as supplies of food, water and power to Gaza have been almost completely cut off. And Israel has blocked all deliveries of fuel, saying it would be exploited by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that misery was \u201cgrowing by the minute\u201d. \u201cI repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies,\u201d Guterres said in a statement. \u201cWithout a fundamental change, the people of Gaza will face an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering.\u201d Jordan\u2019s foreign minister warned on X that an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza would spell a \u201ccatastrophe of epic proportions\u201d for the territory for years to come. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has cautioned that \u201cmany more will die\u201d in Gaza from catastrophic shortages. \u201cPeople in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes, soon many more will die from the consequences of (the) siege,\u201d said Philippe Lazzarini, chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). A first tranche of critically needed aid was allowed in last weekend, but only 74 trucks have crossed since then. The UN says an average of 500 trucks entered Gaza every day before the conflict. \u201cThese few trucks are nothing more than crumbs that will not make a difference,\u201d Lazzarini said. A first team of six medics from the International Committee of the Red Cross entered Gaza Friday via its Rafah crossing with Egypt, along with six aid trucks, the ICRC said. Between the bombardments and the fuel shortages, 12 of Gaza\u2019s 35 hospitals have been forced to close, and UNRWA said it has had to \u201csignificantly reduce its operations\u201d. Israel\u2019s military accused Hamas of using hospitals in Gaza as operations centres for directing attacks, an allegation Hamas swiftly denied. Violence has also risen sharply in the occupied West Bank since the October 7 attacks, with more than 100 Palestinians killed and over 1,900 wounded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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