The Iranian news agency “Tasnim” reported, citing a source, that approximately 5,000 US soldiers participated in the ground operation carried out by the Israeli army on several fronts in the Gaza Strip Friday evening.
According to the Iranian news agency’s report, “three teams and several US brigades participated in the night operation, as Israeli army forces attempted to enter the Gaza Strip from the areas of East Bureij, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, and Khan Yunis”.
The Iranian news agency indicated that Israel used a similar plan, in Its war on Gaza in 2014.
Reports say that the reason for the Israeli army’s advance in these areas is to divide the Gaza Strip into two or three parts and cut off communications between the Palestinian forces before launching the next phase of the operation.
On Friday evening, Israeli army spokesman Brigadier General Daniel Hagari announced the expansion of the Israeli army’s ground operations.
The Israeli army later said, “Our forces carried out air strikes on 150 underground Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip”.
On Friday evening, Israeli army forces launched a ground attack on several axes in the Gaza Strip, the most severe of which was on the northeastern axis of the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, and east of the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, and the al Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, announced that their fighters had confronted the Israeli army forces penetrating on all fronts, and that they had engaged in violent clashes with the advancing forces.
On Saturday evening, violent clashes took place between Israeli army forces and Palestinian resistance fighters on a number of axes in the Gaza Strip, and the al Quds Brigades said in a brief statement, “We bombed the enemy forces penetrating into the far northwest of the Gaza Strip with mortar shells”.
