Israel has launched a ground invasion of Gaza city, two Israeli officials told CNN early Tuesday.
In August, Israel approved a plan to take over and occupy the heavy bombed city.
The invasion began on the outskirts of Gaza city. There, Israeli forces escalated airstrikes, accelerating the destruction of high towers over the past week. One official said ground invasion would initially be “stage-in-depth and progressive.”
“Gaza is on fire,” Israeli Defense Minister Katz wrote Tuesday. He said the Israeli Defense Secretary (IDF) was “to surprise the terrifying infrastructure and working to ensure “hospitalization and Hamas’ defeat.”
Ground invasions were only to progress after Israeli forces were forced to evacuate densely populated urban areas, but so far only a small portion of the population remains. The United Nations warned last month that Israeli plans to invade Gaza city would place around 1 million Palestinians at risk of forced evacuation. On Monday, Israeli military officials said an estimated 320,000 Palestinians had fled the area so far.
The invasion began with a new wave of Israeli strikes. The Israeli strike drove victims, including children, into hospitals with depleted enclaves. Dozens of injured Palestinians were brought in to hospitals near Gaza, including Alsifa Hospital and Baptist Hospital, local officials said.
Video obtained by CNN shows the bodies of multiple bloody children arriving at a hospital in northern Gaza. You can see in one video where two adults grieve at the child’s body covered in white shroud and scream in pain.
