Israel-Gaza war: Israeli tanks enter Gaza as airstrike wipes out journalist's family
Gaza City, Gaza - Israel sent tanks, troops, and armored bulldozers into Gaza in a "targeted raid" overnight that destroyed multiple sites before withdrawing, the army said Thursday.
Black smoke billowed into the night sky after a blast in the grainy night-vision footage the military released hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared preparations for a ground war were underway.
On the 20th day of Israel's deadliest Gaza war yet, the army said its forces had hit "numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts".
The operation in northern Gaza came in "preparation for the next stages of combat," it said, adding that the soldiers had "returned to Israeli territory."
The black-and-white video showed a column of armored vehicles moving near Gaza's border fence. Other footage appeared to show an air strike and buildings being struck with munitions, sending debris flying high into the air.
Just hours earlier, Netanyahu had delivered a nationally televised address to Israelis still grieving and furious after Hamas's bloody October 7 attacks, telling them "we are in the midst of a campaign for our existence."
Al Jazeera journalist's family killed in Israeli airstrike
In response to the Hamas assault that killed over 1,400 people and led to the kidnapping of 224 more, Israel has retaliated with a brutal bombardment that Gaza's health officials say has killed some 7,000 people – mainly civilians – a toll expected to rise substantially if Israeli troops massed near Gaza move in.
That scenario has further heightened international alarm as shock is growing about the scale of human suffering inside the besieged territory where Israel has cut off most water, food, fuel and other basic supplies.
Medical professionals, aid workers, and journalists have also been killed, and Wednesday night, Al Jazeera said the wife and two children of its Gaza correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh were killed in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Footage showed Al-Dahdouh mourning over the bodies of his wife and children at a hospital in Deir el-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented at least 24 cases of journalists being killed since the war began: 20 Palestinians, three Lebanese, and one Israeli.
Cover photo: IDF