Israel targets Gaza City outskirts in second ground raid

The Israeli military raided the central Gaza Strip, near Gaza City, with ground troops overnight Friday for the second time in as many days, ahead of an expected full ground invasion of the territory.

Israel said the “targeted” raids were intended to “prepare the battlefield.” Overnight Thursday, a small group of IDF tanks entered Gaza as “part of preparations for the next stages of combat.”

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has continued into a third week after Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 Israelis in a surprise attack at the outset of the war. Israeli strikes have killed more than 7,000 Palestinians, including more than 2,900 children, according to the Thursday update from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

The strikes, mostly focusing on the northern half of the Gaza Strip, have leveled entire neighborhoods. More than 1 million people have been displaced, intensifying a humanitarian crisis in the region.

Humanitarian aid continued its slow flow into Gaza early Friday as the territory struggles with dwindling water, food, fuel and medical supply reserves.

“This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but it’s not enough,” International Committee of the Red Cross regional director Fabrizio Carboni told The Associated Press. “Our surgical team and medical supplies will help relieve the extreme pressure on Gaza’s doctors and nurses. But safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed.”

“This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour,” he added.

Violence expanded to the West Bank overnight Friday, with four people killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The dead included a Hamas commander, Israeli forces claimed.

Three Palestinians were killed amid a firefight at a refugee camp in the West Bank and another man was shot by Israeli forces later Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. 

More than 70 Palestinians were arrested after the fighting, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, which represents current and former prisoners. Since the start of the war, Israeli authorities have reportedly made more than 1,530 arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, does not control the West Bank, and the governments of the two Palestinian territories are not affiliated with each other.

The conflict has sparked fears of a wider war across the Middle East; Iran’s foreign minister warned the U.S. to stay out of the war in a United Nations speech Thursday.

“I say frankly to the American statemen who are now managing the genocide in Palestine that we do not welcome the expansion of the war in the region,” Iran Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a United Nations address. “But I warn: If the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire. It is our home, and West Asia is our region.”

The U.S. struck multiple Iran-affiliated targets in Syria on Thursday evening after militia groups reportedly attacked American positions in the region, the Pentagon said.