IDF says it has begun ‘broad’ ground operations in several areas of Gaza amid widened offensive

The IDF announces that it has begun “broad” ground operations in several areas of the Gaza Strip, as part of the opening phase of a new major offensive against Hamas.

“Over the past day, IDF troops in the Southern Command, both the standing army and reserves, began a broad ground operation throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip, as part of the start of Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” the military says in a statement.

The IDF days that over the past week, the Israeli Air Force struck over 670 Hamas targets in Gaza “in order to disrupt the enemy’s preparations and assist the ground operation.”

The targets included weapons depots, cells of terror operatives, tunnels and anti-tank launch sites, the army says.

So far, the IDF says troops have killed “dozens of terrorists,” and destroyed terrorist infrastructure above and below ground, “and are now holding strategic areas in the Strip.”