Israeli forces have encircled Gaza City, marking the beginning of a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against Hamas and effectively splitting the Gaza Strip in two, the IDF says.
The update from Israel’s military came as an Israeli border police officer was stabbed by a teenage Palestinian in East Jerusalem, leaving the 20-year-old Israeli seriously injured.
Israeli military activity in Gaza appears to have ramped up significantly over the past 24 hours, with fighter jets carrying out at least 450 strikes on the territory, including one the IDF says killed a senior Hamas commander.
The strikes came as the US urged Israel to undertake a humanitarian “pause” in its bombardment of Gaza, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken making an unexpected visit to the West Bank to meet with the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza, saying: “There will be no ceasefire without the return of our hostages.”
More than 220 people were taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, which also killed about 1,400 people, according to Israeli authorities.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza estimates 9,770 Palestinians — nearly half of them children — have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory strikes since the Hamas attack.
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