Israel’s military was carrying out extensive operations against Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza overnight, and heavy fighting is reported in the southern part of the Palestinian enclave, according to Hebrew-language media.
Extensive battles are reported in the Khan Younis area, according to Channel 12, amid intelligence that some of Hamas’s leadership is present in the city.
Army Radio says military forces are also operating in Gaza City and Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.
The Biden administration on Friday blamed the end of the temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Hamas, as the Palestinian terror group bombarded central and southern Israel with rocket fire and the Israeli military carried out airstrikes in the coastal enclave.
Fighting also resumed Friday along the Israel-Lebanon border, with the Hezbollah terror organization renewing its attacks after pausing fire over the past week amid the truce in Gaza.
According to Israel, Hamas violated the truce by failing to provide a list of hostages it intended to release by 7 a.m. as stipulated in the agreement that had been in place since last week, and also launched rockets toward Israeli territory early on Friday morning.
Gazans reported the IDF had dropped flyers in Khan Younis calling on residents to move south to Rafah, warning the area is dangerous.
The IDF earlier published a map splitting the Gaza Strip into hundreds of small zones, which it will use to notify Palestinian civilians of active combat zones.
It asked Palestinians to pay attention to their area’s number, and follow the IDF’s future updates.
The military may use this map to call on Palestinians from specific areas to evacuate when the IDF’s ground offensive expands to the Strip’s south, instead of demanding mass evacuations as it did in the northern part of Gaza.
“The IDF is operating strongly against terror organizations, while making great efforts to differentiate between civilians and terrorists,” the military said in a message to Gazans.
“The people of Gaza are not our enemies. For this reason, as of this morning the IDF is leading controlled and specific evacuations of Gaza residents in order to remove them as much as possible from areas of combat.”