Israel to ‘expand’ Gaza ground operations Friday night, IDF says

The Israeli military will launch its ground invasion tonight, government officials announced Friday.

Ground forces are “expanding their operations tonight,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters shortly after Gaza lost power and internet access.

He added that he suggests “not to pay attention to the rumors” that a ground invasion was delayed in an effort to free hostages, calling it a “cynical exploitation by Hamas.”

The announcement came just hours after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed that the Jewish state would launch a “long and difficult” ground offensive soon in its efforts to destroy Hamas.

He said the military is preparing for a campaign that would require dismantling a vast network of underground tunnels in the country’s efforts to “dismantle Hamas.”

“We are responding with fire and creating the conditions for the ongoing war,” Gallant said, according to the Guardian. “There will also be other stages.”

“We are preparing them, and we will carry them out,” he vowed. “I am determined to deliver victory.”

But Gallant noted a ground invasion would “take a long time” and would be followed by lower-intensity fighting in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces destroy “pockets of resistance.”

By Friday, the Hamas government announced on Friday that Israel “cut communications and most of the Internet,” Al Arabiya reports.

It accused Israel of taking the measure to “perpetuate massacres with bloody retaliatory strikes from the air, land and sea” after Israeli officials told the AFP it is “continually striking in the Gaza Strip.”

This is a developing story. Keep checking back for updates.

With Post wires