KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: Israel鈥檚 defense minister said Friday that after the country destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control 鈥渓ife in the Gaza Strip.鈥�
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant鈥檚 comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
Gallant said Israel expected there to be three phases to its war with Hamas. He said it first would attack the group in Gaza with airstrikes and ground maneuvers, then it would defeat pockets of resistance and finally it would cease its 鈥渞esponsibility for life in the Gaza Strip.鈥�
Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip early Friday, hitting areas where Palestinians had been told to seek safety, and it began evacuating a sizable Israeli town near the border with Lebanon, the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil.
Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis, a town in the territory鈥檚 south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the local Nasser Hospital. The hospital, Gaza鈥檚 second largest, already was overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.
The Israeli military said it had struck more than 100 targets across Gaza linked to the territory鈥檚 Hamas rulers, including a tunnel and arms depots.
On Thursday, Gallant ordered ground troops to prepare to see Gaza 鈥渇rom the inside,鈥� hinting at a ground offensive aimed at crushing Gaza鈥檚 militant Hamas rulers nearly two weeks after their bloody incursion into Israel. Officials have given no timetable for such an operation.
Over a million people have been displaced in Gaza, with many heeding Israel鈥檚 orders to evacuate the northern part of the sealed-off enclave on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called areas in south Gaza 鈥渟afe zones鈥� earlier this week, Israeli military spokesman Nir Dinar said Friday: 鈥淭here are no safe zones.鈥�
UN officials said that with the bombings across all of Gaza, some Palestinians who had fled the north appeared to be going back.
鈥淭he strikes, coupled with extremely difficult living conditions in the south, appear to have pushed some to return to the north, despite the continuing heavy bombing there,鈥� Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, said.
Gaza鈥檚 overwhelmed hospitals are rationing their dwindling medical supplies and fuel for generators, as authorities worked out logistics for a desperately needed aid delivery from Egypt. Doctors in darkened wards across Gaza performed surgeries by the light of mobile phones and used vinegar to treat infected wounds.
The deal to get aid into Gaza through the territory鈥檚 only entry point not controlled by Israel, remained fragile. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would 鈥渢hwart鈥� any diversions by Hamas. More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid were positioned at or near the crossing in Rafah, a city that straddles northern Egypt and southern Gaza.
Work began Friday to repair the road at the border that had been damaged in airstrikes, with trucks unloading gravel and bulldozers and other road repair equipment filling in large craters.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon, putting residents up in hotels elsewhere in the country. The Defense Ministry announced evacuation plans Friday for Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 residents near the Lebanese border. Three Israelis including a 5-year-old girl were wounded in a rocket attack there Thursday, according to Israeli health services.
Lebanon鈥檚 Hezbollah militant group, which has a massive arsenal of long-range rockets, has traded fire with Israel along the border on a near-daily basis and hinted it might join the war if Israel seeks to annihilate Hamas. Israel鈥檚 archfoe Iran supports both armed groups.
The violence in Gaza has also sparked protests across the region, including in Arab countries allied with the US Those demonstrations could flare anew Friday following weekly Muslim prayers.
Meanwhile, an unclassified US intelligence assessment delivered to Congress estimated casualties in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital this week on the 鈥渓ow end鈥� of 100 to 300 deaths. The death toll 鈥渟till reflects a staggering loss of life,鈥� said the report, seen by The Associated Press. It said intelligence officials were still assessing the evidence and their casualty estimate may evolve.
The report echoed earlier assessments by US officials that the blast at the Al-Ahli hospital was not caused by an Israeli airstrike, as the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza initially reported. Israel has presented video, audio and other evidence it says proves the blast was caused by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.
The AP has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
An Israeli airstrike hit a Greek Orthodox church housing displaced Palestinians near the hospital late Thursday. The Israeli military said it had targeted a Hamas command and control center nearby, causing damage to a church wall. Gaza鈥檚 Hamas-run Health Ministry said 16 Palestinian Christians were killed.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem condemned the attack and said it would 鈥渘ot abandon its religious and humanitarian duty鈥� to provide assistance.
The Israeli military has relentlessly attacked Gaza in retaliation for the devastating Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Palestinian militants have meanwhile launched unrelenting rocket attacks into Israel 鈥� more than 6,900, according to Israel 鈥� and tensions have flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Thirteen Palestinians, including five minors, were killed Thursday during a battle with Israeli troops in which Israel called in an airstrike, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. An Israeli border police officer was killed in the fighting, Israel said.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, the majority women, children and older adults. Nearly 12,500 were injured, and another 1,300 people were believed buried under rubble, authorities said.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians slain during Hamas鈥� deadly incursion. Roughly 200 others were abducted. The Israeli military said Thursday it had notified the families of 203 captives.
In a fiery speech on Thursday to Israeli infantry soldiers on the Gaza border, Gallant, the defense minister, urged them to 鈥渂e ready鈥� to move in. Israel has called up some 360,000 reserves and massed tens of thousands of troops along the Gaza border.
鈥淲hoever sees Gaza from afar now, will see it from the inside,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t might take a week, a month, two months until we destroy them,鈥� he added, referring to Hamas.
With supplies running low because of a complete Israeli siege, some Gaza residents are down to one meal a day and drinking dirty water.
Egypt and Israel were still negotiating the entry of fuel for hospitals. Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hamas has stolen fuel from UN facilities and Israel wants assurances that won鈥檛 happen again.
The Gaza Health Ministry has pleaded with gas stations to give fuel to hospitals, and a UN agency also donated some of its last fuel. Gaza鈥檚 sole power plant shut down last week, forcing Palestinians to rely on generators, and no fuel has gone in since the start of the war.
The agency鈥檚 donation to Gaza City鈥檚 Shifa Hospital, the territory鈥檚 largest, would 鈥渒eep us going for another few hours,鈥� said Mohammed Abu Selmia, the hospital director.