Israel launched massive strikes across northern Gaza, which reports said were the most intense since the start of the war on October 7. In a series of airstrikes that raked densely populated neighborhoods in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack against Israel, Palestinians were reported to have been killed from every walk of life. They include journalists, medical workers, teachers, United Nations staff members and children. The attacks shook Gaza, a small coastal enclave of nearly two million people whose territory is isolated by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade for 16 years.
Amid escalating violence, Israel on Friday warned it would launch ground operations into the territory, which it has already bombarded for more than three days. NBC News has seen signs of preparations for an invasion, including troops amassing in and around the Gaza border area.
As Israel intensified its attacks, Hamas said it fired more rockets at Tel Aviv. Three civilians were injured in the city when a rocket struck an apartment building, according to United Hatzalah, a volunteer emergency response group. One of those injured was a young man in his 20s who was shot in the chest. “The scene was of significant destruction,” Yonatan Uziyahu, a United Hatzalah emergency medical technician, told NBC.
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Uziyahu shook his head at the thought of what could come next. He says there’s a possibility that Israel is preparing for a massive incursion into Gaza, which it has threatened to do several times in the past. He says residents of the Gaza Strip are being urged to flee their homes. “People are running for their lives. They’re afraid, and rightly so,” he said.
Palestinian Civil Defense forces pulled a man out of his basement where he had been huddled with his family after his home was hit in the Rimal neighborhood in the central Gaza Strip. Other residents found themselves in ruins, with their homes reduced to rubble mounds. Many buildings remained intact, but others were reduced to moonscapes of broken concrete and rebar. Cars were flattened and burned out in streets that had been the heart of residential neighborhoods.
The destruction sparked panic in a country already on edge about the conflict. It prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn Israelis to stay in their homes or head to shelters. It also spurred a line of people to supply DNA samples in the hope that they could identify missing loved ones. The Internet has been snapped in the Gaza Strip, a network operator said.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the country had increased its strikes on Gaza “in a very significant way.” News agency AFP live footage captured intense bombardment of the territory’s north, as black smoke billowed into the sky and fires raged from the remains of burnt houses. The Palestinian militant group, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, promised to respond with “salvos of rockets.” Israel’s attacks have reportedly included strikes on Hamas headquarters, underground bunkers, and missile sites.