Artillery, tanks and infantry are firing into the strip but have not crossed its boundary yet, according to a reporter with the Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11. RT's Paula Slier also reported that artillery units from Israel's Golani Brigade are "shooting into Gaza from the border, but have not crossed over."
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said shortly after the IDF announcement:
"I said that we would exact a very heavy price from Hamas. We're doing it and will continue doing it with great intensity. This is not the last word and this operation will continue as long as necessary."Israel has bombed over 650 targets in Gaza, destroying several high-rise buildings in the densely-populated Palestinian enclave. The IDF said its strikes have killed dozens of militants, including some top Hamas commanders.
Six Israelis have been killed so far, including one IDF soldier and a six-year-old boy. Health officials in Gaza said that over 100 Palestinians, including 27 children, had fallen victim to the Israeli strikes as of Thursday, while almost 600 people were injured.
Ground troops have been spotted deploying to the border with the enclave on Thursday, with an IDF spokesman confirming they were in "various stages of preparing ground operations."
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said the IDF had "a division headquarters and three maneuver brigades down in Gaza preparing themselves for that situation and for various contingencies."
Israeli drones, helicopters and fighter jets have been striking strip since Monday, after the militant Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad began launching rockets into Israel. The groups said their actions were reprisal for the Israeli eviction of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem and "repression" of protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed to have launched more than 1,500 rockets into the cities of southern and central Israel since May 10. On Thursday, three rockets were also fired from inside Lebanon, to the north.
The last time IDF ground forces entered Gaza was in 2014, during the seven-week Operation Protective Edge. There was also a three-week incursion in late 2008, running into 2009. The strip has been under control of Hamas - a militant Palestinian organization - since the local elections in 2007, two years after Israel declared unilateral withdrawal of troops and settlements from the strip.
Gaza is the part of the original Palestine Mandate annexed by Egypt after Israel declared independence in 1948. It was occupied by Israeli troops during the Six-Day War in 1967.
The most obvious example of how this "rules based order" functions is exemplified by the operations, techniques, inhumane punishments and cruelties, suppression's, denial of "Rights", land theft and usurpation's, and the "Ethnic cleansing" of Palestine. All paid for and supported by the United States and their allies tax payer monies.
I am now eighty seven, have witnessed all of this for most of my adult life, this is my conclusion: Such "rules based" inventions, so well established and supported by others, who should know better, can and will end, in only one way; There will be war and conflagration UN-imagined, it is now inevitable, too much has been invested into causing it, all the lies and deceits are in place, it is fait accompli; The grand prize, subjugation and may be the totalitarian rules based order of whole World.
Democratic National Governments World wide are criminally responsible because they have insanely succumbed to the twisted visions and lies "erupting" out of the United States, and they have not troubled to ask the Peoples they Govern, either for their opinion or instructions, so that the Peoples "Will" shall prevail; such Governments are necessarily complicit and corrupt. The Worlds worst collaborator along with the illegal occupier's of Palestine, being my country Australia; the "rewards" and inducements must be huge, because neither International Law or Humanitarian considerations guide their decisions.
Such Governments do not need the "Peoples" armies any more; They need only a handful of brainwashed psychopaths willing to press buttons when ordered. Mark my words, be ready and prepared, this War must happen; my personal hope is, that it strikes down the original rehearsals of the New Rules Based Order first; The illegal occupiers operating in the Middle East and professing "their" God to be an original real estate vendor.
Some aspects are inevitable; so before wagging your fingers at me, warning of all the innocent Arab civilians likely in harms way, let me remind you of one stand alone fact; all Arabs and neighboring Nations are complicit because they almost literally have stood by and just let it happen; they tried and failed, falling at the first fence, does that mean all is lost? No, If the cause is of paramount importance, and surely the Palestine cause is one such,you re-group get stronger and resist; you do not swallow the occupiers Shekels, obfuscations and deceptions, and you do not get into bed with them. Read their instruction manual, it clearly instructs, "By deception thou shall succeed", and nothing else can account for the Inhumane, wretched and dire circumstances, the Palestinians are now mired in; and where pray, is the Arab and Muslim support? It is busy sucking on the occupiers teats, and calling that "normalisation". The shame and disgrace of this will sit with the Arabs and Muslims for all Eternity. Amen It Is Written.