The IDF announced on Thursday evening that it had four separate forces operating simultaneously in each of Gaza’s main regions, one of the first times during the war that it has taken such an approach.The first ground invasion move came on Wednesday when tanks and infantry entered central Gaza at the Netzarim Corridor, cutting off northern and southern Gaza from eachother.
Throughout Thursday, rocket sirens sounded in Israel three times – once when a rocket was launched from Gaza in the afternoon and twice from Yemen: once early in the morning and once again in the evening. Both were intercepted outside of Israeli territory.By early Thursday, IDF infantry, tanks, and artillery forces from Brigade 188 had also entered Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Later on Thursday afternoon, IDF forces entered Bani Suheila in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.The last piece came on Thursday night when it was announced that IDF forces had entered Shaboura in Rafah in deep southern Gaza.
Renewed hostilities began with a massive IDF strike on 80 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets around 2:10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, followed by IDF warnings to evacuate the approximately one-third of Gaza that is closest to the border with Israel. The military sent out some additional reminders regarding these evacuations as the week progressed.Hamas-run Palestinian health officials said that 91 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the airstrikes.At this stage, the focus is on both destroying newly built Hamas command centers and attacking the few Hamas terrorists who show themselves or which IDF intelligence locates, often using air strikes.More specifically, the military announced on Thursday afternoon that it had assassinated Hamas’s chief of counterintelligence, Rashid Gachgoach.Gachgoach was crucial to catching Palestinians cooperating with Israel, a key arena both for strategic and tactical conflicts between the sides.As such, he was a key member of Hamas’s intelligence and terror planning command structure.The IDF also named multiple other senior-level Hamas officials who it assassinated on Thursday.Hamas has claimed that close to 600 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF since Tuesday, with even more wounded.The IDF has disputed those numbers and at least one specific incident but has mostly said that the fact that it is targeting Hamas, trying to evacuate civilians, and has the full support of the Trump administration are the main ways to frame the issue.Despite the increased intensity of the ground invasion, it is still a far cry from the massive invasion of Gaza in rapid succession, which many Israeli officials had been predicting over the last month or so once new IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir would take over the military.
Relatively small number of forces in Gaza
The relative number of forces now in Gaza is still small while none of the IDF’s announcements indicate full divisions operating, but rather brigade size or smaller forces.Whereas divisions can range from 5,000-10,000 soldiers, brigades are closer to 500-1,000 soldiers.In that sense, there is likely still only one-tenth or less of the soldiers in Gaza so far compared to the start of the war when five divisions invaded northern Gaza together.For example, there are around a dozen key areas in northern Gaza; as of now, the IDF is only operating in one of them.The smaller force size of the invasion is also obvious as fewer reservists have been called up to date, whereas at the start of the war, hundreds of thousands of reservists were called up.Tuesday’s air strikes broke a nearly two-month ceasefire dating back to January 19.But so far, Israel still seems to be giving Hamas time to agree to concessions relating to returning hostages before it broadens the ground invasion to full-scale, while Thursday did show a significant escalation.To date, Hamas has failed to mount much resistance.The IDF has not reported on any fallen soldiers.Hamas has fired only three rockets in three days, one which was shot down and the other which failed to strike anything or anyone significant.At the start of the war, Hamas fired hundreds of rockets at Israel on a daily basis for three to four months straight, killing several IDF soldiers, even as far more Hamas terrorists were killed in relative terms.
Reuters contributed to this report.