Hamas has confirmed that its fighters repelled an Israeli ground incursion in the areas of Beit Hanoun and central Gaza, while the Israeli army announced the participation of 100 warplanes in airstrikes targeting Gaza during the night.
Late on Friday, the military wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, reported that its fighters engaged with Israeli forces in the town of Beit Hanoun in northeastern Gaza and in the Bureij area in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
In an early Saturday statement, Hamas stated, “Al-Qassam Brigades and all Palestinian resistance factions are fully prepared to confront the aggression and thwart incursions.” The statement also mentioned that “Netanyahu and his defeated army will not achieve any military accomplishments.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli military reported that 100 fighter jets from the Israeli Air Force participated in airstrikes targeting Gaza during the night from Friday to Saturday.
The Israeli military stated, “During the night, fighter jets struck 150 underground targets in the northern Gaza Strip, including tunnels used by terrorists, underground combat sites, and other facilities. Several Hamas terrorists were killed.”
This statement from the Israeli military came after a night of heavy Israeli strikes on Gaza, where communication and internet services had already been disrupted due to power cuts, further isolating the Gaza Strip.
Internet and communication services remained cut off for more than 10 hours until early Saturday morning, according to telecommunication companies and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. They attributed the outage to Israeli airstrikes.
Palestine’s telecommunications company, PalTel, the largest provider of wired and wireless communications in Gaza, reported a “complete interruption of all communication and internet services with the Gaza Strip.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society stated that it had completely lost contact with its operations room in Gaza and its teams working there. Additionally, the Hamas-run government in the Gaza Strip announced that its rescue teams were unable to receive emergency calls.
