Israeli incursion into Gaza could be opening act for the war to come

Israel launched its heaviest raid yet into the northern Gaza Strip late Wednesday by sending tanks and other armored vehicles across the border ahead of what is expected to be a full-scale invasion of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that troops struck “numerous” terrorist cells, anti-tank missile launching positions and other Hamas infrastructure in preparation for what it called the “next stage of combat.”

“The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory,” the IDF said.

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced growing domestic pressure to respond in force more than two weeks after the Hamas rampage from Gaza. Meanwhile, the U.S., the United Nations and countries in the region are urging Israel to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe as it seeks to destroy Hamas in its densely populated stronghold. Israel and the U.S. have long considered Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

A video released by the IDF showed a bulldozer pushing aside an obstacle while tanks fired at targets inside Gaza. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an IDF spokesman, said troops also cleared land mines and destroyed sites that Hamas fighters could use to attack Israeli soldiers. He told CNN that the IDF had conducted similar operations over the previous week but on a smaller scale.

“It was a clear-and-sweep operation intended to create better terms for ground operations,” Col. Lerner said. “We engaged the enemy, killing terrorists planning to conduct attacks against us.”

No IDF troops were reported injured from the overnight mission, Col. Lerner said.

Israeli officials said an IDF airstrike killed a top Hamas official. Shadi Barud, deputy head of the terrorist group’s intelligence directorate, helped plan the Oct. 7 rampage across southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals, mostly civilians, and resulted in hundreds of others taken hostage.

The Hamas leader also was involved in “countless other deadly attacks carried out against Israelis,” the IDF said in a statement.

In its latest casualty estimate, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that more than 7,000 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes since Oct. 7. The figure could not be independently verified.

The United Nations has called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of more than 220 people held captive since Hamas’ grisly incursion on Israeli farms and settlements near the border with Gaza.

“There is an urgent need for the captors of the hostages to provide signs of life, proof of provision of health care, and the immediate release, on humanitarian and health grounds, of all those abducted,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the U.N.’s World Health Organization, said Thursday.

He called on Hamas to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to the hostages to assess their condition and said the WHO would be ready to provide health support.

Martin Griffiths, the top U.N. humanitarian official, said aid is “barely trickling” into Gaza as conditions deteriorate.

“The world itself is failing to meet the bare entitlements of a part of humanity,” Mr. Griffiths said. “The rules of war are clear: Civilians must be protected and have the essentials to survive, wherever they are and whether they choose to move or stay.”

Iran warns U.S.

The Palestinians got a far more sympathetic hearing at a Wednesday “emergency debate” of the U.N. General Assembly, where several nations pressed for a full-scale cease-fire in Gaza to allow citizens to be safely relocated.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian used the session to issue a sharp warning to the U.S. and other Western nations for their material and diplomatic support of what he called Israel’s policy of “genocide” toward the Palestinians.

“We do not welcome the expansion and scope of the war in the region, but I warn if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire,” the Iranian minister said.

The foreign ministers of nine Arab nations issued a joint statement condemning what they said was the targeting of civilians by Israeli forces and violations of international law. Israel has staunchly denied targeting civilians as it prepares its full-bore response to Hamas.

The Biden administration has been streaming troops, ships and military assets to the region to support Israel and fend off Iran and its regional allies, such as Hezbollah, from entering the conflict against Israel.

Pentagon officials said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been in close communication with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, since the Oct. 7 attack. The two men, both former army generals, talk nearly daily, and Mr. Austin receives regular updates on IDF operations. They last spoke on Wednesday.

Even the Pentagon has been saying that the Israeli military must consider the plight of those trapped in the Gaza enclave. The European Union approved a resolution Thursday calling for “humanitarian corridors and pausing” in the Israeli bombing campaign to allow needed supplies to reach Gaza residents.

“During the discussion, Secretary Austin reiterated the importance of ensuring humanitarian aid can be delivered into Gaza and repeated our calls for Israel to ensure the protection of civilians,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.

About 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, and nearly half have crowded into U.N. shelters, The Associated Press reported. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza despite an order from Israel to leave and a warning that those who refuse might be considered “accomplices” of Hamas.

Gen. Ryder said the U.S. is sending interceptors for the crucial Iron Dome air defense system to protect Israeli citizens against rockets fired by Hamas.

Israel has launched a relentless air campaign against Hamas inside Gaza since the Oct. 7 massacre, prompting large protests in several cities around the world. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble as Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas for carrying out what many have called the most extensive massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Rising death toll

Although President Biden said he doesn’t trust the civilian casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health, the U.N. and media organizations often cite its numbers.

U.N. officials said the health ministry reported the heaviest death toll yet on Wednesday. It said 756 people, including 344 children, were killed.

“With bombardments continuing, according to Gaza’s de facto authorities, some 1,600 people, including 900 children, have been reported missing and may be under the rubble,” the U.N. said.

The U.N. estimated that Gaza has 12 days of food supplies on hand. It said 62 trucks carrying water, food and medical supplies traveled through the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza over four days this week.

“Most of this aid has already reached hospitals, ambulances and internally displaced persons. However, this daily average of trucks allowed in Gaza prior to the hostilities was about 500,” said Stephane Dujarric, an official with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Mr. Dujarric said officials have improved the water supply in areas south of Wadi Gaza, where refugees have been urged to seek refuge. U.N. aid workers said they had delivered small quantities of fuel retrieved from existing reserves to vital facilities such as hospitals.

“However, the available fuel in these facilities will be exhausted fairly soon, and the supply of piped water is expected to cease again,” Mr. Dujarric said.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.