Israel bombards Gaza ahead of expected ground invasion

Israel kept up its bombardment campaign of Gaza overnight into Friday as the country prepares an expected ground invasion in its war with Hamas.

Strikes continued in the south of Gaza, an area Israel had instructed civilians to relocate to in order to avoid strikes in the north. The territory’s government reported that regional hospitals are overflowing, mostly with civilians injured and killed, while the Israeli military claims it attacked more than 100 Hamas targets.

Approximately 1,400 Israelis have been killed in the first two weeks of the conflict, mostly in a Hamas surprise attack that marked the war’s outset, the Israeli government said, while the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said responding strikes have killed nearly 3,800 Palestinians.

On Thursday, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops to prepare to see Gaza “from the inside,” the most direct hint that a ground invasion of the territory is expected. The military has signaled an invasion for days but has not given a timetable for an operation.

“Whoever sees Gaza from afar now, will see it from the inside,” Gallant said. “It might take a week, a month, two months until we destroy them,” he added, referring to Hamas.

As part of ground attack preparations, Israel demanded that nearly half of Gaza’s population — about 1 million people — flee the north of the territory and move south.

A United Nations spokesperson said Friday that strikes in southern Gaza are pushing those who fled back north, despite the danger.

“We remain very concerned that Israeli Forces’ heavy strikes are continuing across Gaza, including in the south,” U.N. spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said, The Associated Press reported. “The strikes, coupled with extremely difficult living conditions in the south, appear to have pushed some to return to the north, despite the continuing heavy bombing there.”

Shamdasani cited one Palestinian who he said told the U.N., “I might as well die in my own house.”

A Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City was hit in Israeli strikes Thursday night, and 18 civilians were killed, Hamas claimed. The Israeli military said a strike on an adjacent military target collapsed a wall of the church.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem condemned the attack and said it would “not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty” to provide assistance, saying the strike “constitutes a war crime that can not be ignored.”

A humanitarian aid convoy from Egypt was expected to enter Gaza, which is struggling with dwindling medical supplies as well as food and fuel, Friday after President Biden encouraged the Israeli government to allow it in. Biden announced a $100 million humanitarian aid package for Gaza civilians Wednesday, while he was visiting Israel.

Those humanitarian aid convoys do not include fuel, which has been a point of emphasis in negotiations between Egypt and Israel, according to the AP. The Israeli military claims that Hamas has previously stolen fuel from U.N. facilities; the entire territory is without power and hospitals require fuel to power generators for lifesaving equipment.

About 55 trucks full of aid were waiting on the Egyptian side of the border early Friday, the AP reported. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres was in Sinai, Egypt, near the Gaza border, on Friday to encourage the aid to move quickly.