Israel has reportedly conducted “localized raids” in Gaza against Palestinian terrorists and launched strikes against Hezbollah sites in Lebanon as part of the Jewish state’s ongoing response to Hamas’s terror attack that claimed the lives of 1,300 people and wounded 3,000 more.
“We’re just learning this right now, breaking. The IDF tells Fox News that Israeli forces entered the Gaza Strip today, both infantry forces and tanks, to conduct localized raids,” Fox News’s foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported. “This was not the full-scale invasion that everyone is still anticipating, but it was an effort, according to the Israeli military, to eliminate militants along the border and also to gather information on those held hostage inside the Gaza Strip.”
“It appears those raids were successful,” he added.
Israeli soldiers make the heart sign with their fingers as they sit in an armored vehicle rolling along the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel on October 13, 2023. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)
Additionally, Israeli forces are said to be conducting fresh drone strikes against Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, according to the Times of Israel. There are very few details about the development that are known at this time.
On Thursday, the IDF urged one million residents of northern Gaza to leave their homes and evacuate southward within 24 hours for the remainder of the war as forces prepare for a mass ground invasion to destroy Hamas.
Egypt is refusing to allow a large number of Gaza residents to depart. The Rafah border crossing is the sole corridor between Egypt and Gaza.
Gazans must “stay steadfast and remain on their land,” Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Thursday.
The escalation in Gaza and Lebanon come as Iran issued yet another threat.
Bloomberg News reports:
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said it was prepared to act against Israel over its war in Gaza after its sponsor, Iran, warned the continued blockade of the Palestinian enclave could open up a new front in the conflict.
“We are fully prepared — when the time comes — for any action that we will carry out,” Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qasem said, according to the group’s Al Manar TV station.
