Army appears to be still in Gaza and pushing further southpublished at 09:29 British Summer Time 28 October 2023

09:29 BST 28 October 2023

Jeremy Bowen
International Editor, reporting from southern Israel

Image source, Getty Images

What appears to be happening this morning is Israeli forces are concentrating on the northern area of the Gaza strip, in Beit Hanoun, and pushing down a bit further south from there.

The Israeli army are not adding anything to what they said last night - they are upping the tempo of their operations.

We have seen from video which has emerged from Gaza this morning and from what could be seen along the border area last night, evidence of a very, very large bombardment.

The communications blackout means it’s very hard to find out exactly what’s going on – for example I have spoken to the UN this morning who have been able to communicate with their main office in the south over a satellite phone.

But, as there is no internal communication, they can’t connect with their area offices which look after their aid operations - currently suspended completely - to see how they are doing.

Israel's military has released a video that is says shows its ground forces in Gaza - a claim we have not yet verified.

The footage, below, shows dozens of Israeli tanks and other vehicles. We are working to verify the video - most importantly, where it was shot and whether these vehicles have crossed from Israel into Gaza, as they did in raids earlier this week.

A little earlier today, Israel's military spokesman said its forces were "still in the field", without giving more details. Last night, Israel said its ground forces were "expanding operations".

We'll bring you more information as soon as we can.

Here are a few more lines from the statement made by Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari.

Speaking about Israel's military aims, he said that the IDF "will continue to make a concerted effort in order to maintain the security of our forces, using strong fire from the air, but this is combat".

"We are working towards goals that we have set for ourselves and that have been defined for us. The dissolution of Hamas, border security and a national effort to return the abducted."

On the fate of the hostages, he said "returning the abductees home is a supreme national effort. And all our activities, operational, intelligence, are aimed at realising the goal".

More from IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari who spoke in Hebrew and said several Hamas commanders have been killed overnight as part of the expanded offensive.

He added that aid trucks will get into Gaza today carrying food and water.

Finally, he confirmed there have been 311 Israel Defense Forces fatalities since the attack by Hamas on 7 October. He added that the IDF have suffered to casualties in the overnight operations.

He also confirmed that 229 people who have been taken from Israel are being held hostage in Gaza.

Let's bring you a quick overview from what IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari has just said.

In his briefing, he said the Israeli Israeli military was "fighting a weaker enemy".

Hagari confirmed troops entered northern Gaza overnight adding forces were "still in the field".

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari has just begun a statement - we'll bring you lines shortly.

Earlier this morning, the military released a video that it said showed its ground forces operating in Gaza - we will bring you that video shortly, but we may also hear more about it in the statement.

We have also been told that around 100 fighter jets bombarded Gaza overnight and 150 underground targets were hit.

Our reporter on the ground has described the situation as "total chaos".

We'll bring you more as soon as we have it.

Lyse Doucet
Chief International Correspondent

For weeks now, the question has been: when will Israel launch its ground attack?

Friday’s escalation appears to mark the beginning of a ground incursion but what’s known so far seems to indicate it may proceed in stages. An IDF spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner has called it a “limited invasion".

With a communications blackout in Gaza, details are still unclear. The Israel Defense Forces have posted a grainy video which shows long columns of tanks on the move but it is still not clear if they are on the ground in Gaza.

Amid all the speculation surrounding Israel’s plans, one option had been widely cited - that Israel could move into Gaza, from the north, and try to clear and hold limited expanses of territory while it intensifies its attacks.

Israel is now saying it will also accelerate the entry of desperately needed aid into Gaza, but aid agencies are ringing alarm bells, as loudly, as possible, in this din of war.

As well as hearing from our reporter on the ground in Gaza, Rushdi Abualouf, we're beginning to see the first images emerge showing the scale of destruction in northern Gaza.

The first photo below taken from the Israeli city of Sderot, which is close to Gaza, and shows the north-east part of the Strip. The second shows a photo of northern Gaza taken from an undisclosed location in Israel.

We'll bring you more images of Gaza as we get them. Israel says it struck 150 Hamas targets in intensified overnight bombing, and our reporter described the bombardment on the north of the Strip as happening "on a scale we’ve never seen before".

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly says that calls for a ceasefire “aren’t going to help the situation”.

"Of course we want to see Israel safe, peaceful and secure,” he says in an interview, but there is no indication from Hamas that they would accept or abide by a ceasefire.

Cleverly reiterates UK support for Israel and the importance of adhering to international law. He says that it is important to remember that it was Hamas who initiated this round of fighting with their brutal attack on 7 October.

He refrains from saying there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and pins the blame for the situation on Hamas. “We want to alleviate that suffering,” he says, which is why the UK has increased its commitment to humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

Cleverly concludes by warning protesters in the UK to be mindful of misinformation and manipulation, and says that they should be wary of a “small minority” who have more "negative aims”.

Rushdi Abualouf
Reporting from Khan Younis, Gaza

There was a huge bombardment in the north of Gaza strip on a scale we’ve never seen before.

Huge flames could be seen rising into the sky – it seemed they were using different types of bombs.

At the hospital here ambulance drivers told me they couldn’t communicate with anyone, so they were just driving in the direction of the explosions.

There’s been panic everywhere, even here in Khan Younis, where the bombing was less, as people try to reach family members in other areas to check they are safe, but the phones have been cut off.

It’s total chaos.

Image source, Getty Images

"Around a hundred fighter jets" were used in Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip overnight that destroyed hundreds of Hamas targets, according to the head of Israel's Air Force Operations Brigadier General Gilad Keinan.

In a post on X, external, Israeli forces quoted Keinan as saying that the air force's "goal is clear - to destroy everything touched by the hand of Hamas".

As we've been reporting, almost all communication with people in Gaza has become impossible as phone and internet services have been cut off.

Our Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman posted on X, external round 0640 BST that people in Gaza cannot speak to the outside world "or presumably to each other".

His post was accompanied by an image of a WhatsApp message he had sent to someone in the besieged enclave, which had not been delivered as of 1840 Gaza time yesterday.

Many of our other journalists are also saying that none of their messages to people in Gaza are getting through.

Lucy Williamson
Reporting from Ashkelon

Looking down the coast from Ashkelon towards Gaza, you can hear explosions - sometimes several times a minute.

Regular, but more muffled than the loudest explosions last night. I can hear planes and what sounds like a helicopter passing above the city here.

Morning mist or fog means it’s difficult to see very far. There has just been another series of explosions, they seem to be getting louder.

Wyre Davies
Reporting from Jerusalem

Stung by increasing international criticism and concern over the intensity of its bombing campaign in Gaza, Israel has doubled-down.

The Israeli Force said that in one of the most intensive nights of bombing so far, it had hit 150 underground targets in northern parts of Gaza, including what it called “terror tunnels, underground combat spaces and additional infrastructure.”

Israel also said a senior Hamas commander – named as Asem Abu Rakaba – has been killed. Israel said he had been directly responsible for Hamas’s aerial capabilities, including drones and paragliders used in the 7 October attacks when 1,400 people in Israel were killed.

It’s nearly impossible to get through to Gaza because many of the usual communication networks are down but the intensity of the bombing last night was abundantly clear. The devastation on the ground is almost apocalyptic in some areas and the number of dead, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry has risen to well over 7,000 – around half of those are said to be children.

There is some mounting criticism in Israel to the growing intensity of the air campaign, especially from the families of the 229 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

But the Israeli government is unrepentant. The word “ceasefire” is not even being considered, say government officials and Israel will not rest until its aim of completely defeating Hamas is achieved.

Image source, Getty Images

And more now from Asmaa in Rafah, where she lives with her son who has Ewing's Sarcoma cancer. We spoke to Asmaa before Israel began intensifying its bombing last night, and posted snippets from the conversation earlier.

"When my son and I want to go to bed, we always recite a prayer. Our house can be bombed at any moment," she says about their nights.

Asmaa says that most people in her neighbourhood are civilians. "There are no Resistance here," she adds.

"Civilians should be safe in their homes. But unfortunately, their houses are destroyed on top of them. Nowhere is safe. Not even a metre anywhere in Gaza… north, south, east, west."

She says the Israeli surveillance drones which are flying low are intimidating: "After sunset it’s very difficult to leave the house, surveillance drones fly very close to people. It’s intimidating. You are always worried a missile is going to strike you."

Asmaa recalls the previous conflicts where missiles targeted a single house and those living in it.

It is different, she says: "Now they destroy an entire block, five or six houses at a time. They bomb the whole street and anything that’s on it. Anywhere can be bombed. It’s not limited to just a house or two."

Speaking on Friday, she said they had been hearing the sounds of bombing all day and "it shakes us".

Israel's military says it has killed the man who allegedly commanded the Hamas fighters who infiltrated Israel on paragliders on 7 October and was allegedly responsible for drone attacks on Israeli military posts.

The Israel Defense Force posted on X, external, formerly known as Twitter: "Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck Asem Abu Rakaba, the Head of Hamas' Aerial Array.

"Abu Rakaba was responsible for Hamas' UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], drones, paragliders, aerial detection and defence. He took part in planning the October 7 massacre and commanded the terrorists who infiltrated Israel on paragliders and was responsible for the drone attacks on IDF posts."

Image source, EPA

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the charity organisation known as Doctors Without Borders, said it had lost contact with some of its Palestinian colleagues on the ground.

In a message shared on social media, external, the group said it was "particularly worried for the patients, medical staff and thousands of families taking shelter at Al Shifa hospital and other health facilities".

"We call for the unequivocal protection of all medical facilities, staff and civilians across the Gaza Strip," MSF said.

MSF's website says it moved international medical staff to the south of Gaza on 13 October, following Israel’s evacuation order. Prior to that, the group had an operational theatre at Al Shifa in the north of the Gaza strip. Al Shifa is Gaza City's main hospital.

Earlier, an Israeli military spokesman alleged that Hamas was using the hospital as a shield for underground tunnels and command centres. Hamas has denied this accusation.

Israel's move to expand its ground operations in Gaza last night leads most of Saturday's front pages.

The Daily Mirror, external says Israel was last night poised for a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza after launching a wave of strikes.

Witnesses described the bombardment as the most intense of the war so far, the Daily Telegraph reports, external. The paper also reports that London Mayor Sadiq Khan's call for an Israeli ceasefire deepened the division within his Labour Party over the war in Gaza.

With internet and electricity down in Gaza, about 2.3 million people living there have been cut off from the outside world, the Daily Express reports., external

The Daily Mail says, external fear spread among civilians in Gaza, as they reported the most intense air strikes since the conflict began three weeks ago.

Read our full newspaper review here.

We reported earlier how pro-Palestinian protesters forced the closure of one of the busiest train stations in the US tonight when they flooded into New York's Grand Central Terminal.

Other demonstrators around the world joined together to demand that fighting stop and aid be allowed into Gaza. And there were also protests which sought to highlight the people taken hostage in Israel by Hamas.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Image source, Reuters

Image source, epa

Image source, Reuters

Here in the UK, police say they expect about 100,000 people to join a demonstration in London on Saturday with other rallies organised elsewhere - including in Manchester and Glasgow.

Image source, Reuters

Antisemitic hate crime has continued to soar in London, with 408 offences recorded so far this month, compared with 28 in the same period last year.

Islamophobic hate crime is also on the rise, up from 65 offences last October to 174 so far this month.

The Metropolitan Police says it has made 75 arrests linked to the Israel-Gaza conflict, and is investigating 10 potential breaches of anti-terrorism laws.

The new crime stats come amid warnings from security and community figures that domestic hate crime and radicalisation could be fuelled by events in the Middle East.

A large pro-Palestinian protest is expected in London on Saturday.

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