Internet and mobile services cut off in Gaza as Israeli forces step up operations
Hindustan TimesIsraeli air and ground forces are stepping up operations in the Gaza Strip, Israel's chief military spokesperson said on Friday, amid reports of heavy bombing of the besieged enclave. Israeli forces have massed outside Gaza, where Israel has been conducting an intense campaign of aerial bombardment since a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Islamist movement Hamas. With Israel keeping up daily bombardments that laid waste to swathes of the densely populated strip, Palestinians said they received renewed Israeli military warnings to move from Gaza's north to the south to avoid the deadliest theatre of the war. NORTHERN FRONT Strategically, Gaza operations may be complicated by the need to protect Israel's northern border where Israeli forces have been engaged in days of sporadic cross-border fire into southern Lebanon and Syria.