An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike team entered Gaza on Wednesday to prepare for the long-anticipated ground invasion.
The news comes amid growing fears that Iran and its proxies will escalate attacks on US forces once the invasion begins, FT reported.
On Wednesday, The leader of Hizbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, met senior figures of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Lebanon and “agreed to continue coordination” in pursuit of a “real victory for the resistance in Gaza and Palestine.”
A senior US official said:
“What we’re seeing is concerning. We have indications that there are groups in the region that have a desire to escalate, and that’s why we have bolstered our military presence and communicated that we have bolstered our military presence.”
The Israel Defence Force published a video of the Gaza ground invasion:
Watch
In preparation for the next stages of combat, the IDF operated in northern Gaza.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 26, 2023
IDF tanks & infantry struck numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts.
The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory. pic.twitter.com/oMdSDR84rU
Watch
כוחות צה"ל בפיקוד חטיבת גבעתי ביצעו הלילה פשיטה ממוקדת באמצעות טנקים בשטח צפון רצועת עזה, כחלק מהכנת המרחב לשלבי הלחימה הבאים.
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) October 26, 2023
במסגרת הפעילות הכוחות איתרו ותקפו מחבלים רבים, השמידו תשתיות טרור, עמדות נ"ט וביצעו עבודות לארגון המרחב.
הכוחות יצאו מהמרחב בסיום המשימה pic.twitter.com/pWKfMV6Fz0
In a statement, the IDF said:
“Overnight, the IDF conducted a targeted raid using tanks in the northern Gaza Strip as part of preparations for the next stages of combat.’
“The activity was commanded by the Givati Brigade.”
“During the activity, soldiers located and struck numerous terrorists, terror infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts, and operated to prepare the battlefield.”
“The soldiers exited the area at the end of the activity.”
According to the IDF, it has 250 Hamas targets, including a rocket launch site near a school.
As Breitbart noted, Roughly 100,000 troops are massed at the Gaza border to enter and take out Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization that attacked Israel on October 7, murdering more than 1,400 people, wounding well over 4,000 more, and taking over 200 hostages.
The scale and brutality of the attack has convinced Israelis that they can no longer tolerate the presence of Hamas in Gaza.
A ground invasion will likely have a heavy cost in terms of lives, but the country is united behind the need to invade and fight.
Last week, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, the head of the Iranian Armed Forces, said the American support for Israel could “make other actors intervene.”
“Our strategy towards the Zionist entity never changes: the removal of the Zionist entity,” Iranian Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier-General Abolfazl Shekarchi said in 2021.
“Israel must be eliminated.”
Baqeri did not specify whether his own armed forces would be among the actors to invade Israel, but he did not deny the possibility.
President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, said the mass killing of civilians in a hospital in Gaza had “set off the termination of Israel,” according to Tasnim.
On Wednesday, Iran’s foreign minister issued a major warning to Israel.
The chilling message was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Hossein Amir-Abdallohian the day after a missile strike at a Gaza City hospital, which caused hundreds of deaths.
Amir-Abdollahian tweeted:
“After the terrible crime of the Zionist regime in the bombing and massacre of more than 1,000 innocent women and children in the hospital, the time has come for the global unity of humanity against this fake regime more hated than ISIS and its killing machine.”
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