(CNN) — The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari announced Friday, as intense airstrikes rocked the besieged enclave and with communications links reportedly severed.
Gaza residents told CNN the strikes were the most intense they have experienced since Israel began to retaliate against Hamas’ October 7 terror attack nearly three weeks ago.
Hagari said the IDF was “operating forcefully” on all fronts and would “continue striking Gaza City.” He also called on Gaza civilians to continue to evacuate south.
A substantial ground offensive has been expected ever since the attacks, in which Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and saw some 200 people taken to Gaza as hostages. However, it is not yet clear whether the IDF announcement of an expanded operation signals the start of that push.
Israel has amassed thousands of troops on the border, and has been bombarding and blockading Gaza, sparking what aid agencies call a humanitarian crisis.
A CNN team on the ground in southern Israel, close to the border with Gaza, reported a series of large explosions rocking Gaza City in the north of the enclave on Friday, as well as “unusual, intense and sustained” military activity for the past couple of hours. A huge wall of heavy smoke that lasted 15 to 30 minutes also blew from Gaza into southern Israel earlier Friday evening.
Jawwal, which provides mobile service to the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that “the intense bombardment in the past hour has resulted in the destruction of all remaining international routes connecting Gaza with the outside world.”
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accused Israel off cutting communications and internet in the Gaza Strip Friday in an “attempt to create darkness so that crimes can be committed” in preparation for an IDF ground operation.
Speaking to CNN, Shtayyeh said “the world is facing a historic moment” and needed to act in order to stop the “aggression and massacres” that would come in an incursion.
Gaza has been “left in the dark with no connection to the outside world,” an eyewitness at the Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah told CNN.
The eyewitness also said the hospital has received the bodies of 11 people killed and dozens injured from the intensified bombardment of central Gaza Friday night, and added that casualties are expected to rise.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it has “completely lost contact with the operations room in Gaza and all our teams operating there.”
After Israel’s announcement Friday, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi urged the approval of a pending resolution at the United Nations that calls for a ceasefire. In a post on X, he said “voting against Arab #UNGA resolution means approving this senseless war, this senseless killing.”
The UN General Assembly is expected to vote shortly on the resolution, which calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the war between Israel and Hamas. The US and Israel have rejected the resolution.
The IDF announcement comes amid ongoing efforts to free the hostages. Earlier on Friday, a source touted “significant progress” in negotiations.
When asked about a possible deal, Hagari told reporters to “disregard rumors.” Hagari dismissed reports that a hostage deal was close to being brokered as “psychological terror and a cynical use of Israeli civilians by Hamas.”
The White House said it would not be appropriate to weigh in on Israel’s expanded military campaign.
“We have, of course, certainly seen Israel undertake varied operations on the ground in the last couple of days,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday. “But again, we’re not going to get into the habit of chiming in from the sidelines here on what they’re trying to do on the ground.”
Kirby declined to say if Israel had informed the US before launching an expanded ground operation into Gaza Friday. He also declined to say if the Biden administration has confidence that Israel has fully considered the ramifications of a ground incursion.
But Kirby said the US had held “active conversations” with Israel about a humanitarian pause to allow for the release of hostages. “We are working as hard today as we were yesterday and the day before and the day before to get these hostages home,” Kirby told CNN.
Also on Friday, the main UN agency in Gaza warned of the deepening humanitarian crisis facing more than 2 million Palestinians living in the enclave.
“Food and water are running out. The streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage. Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard as the risks of diseases are looming,” said Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
While aid has began to trickle into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, Lazzarini said the deliveries so far amounted to “nothing more than crumbs.”
