Israeli warplanes hit refugee camps, military says it has cut 'Gaza Strip into two'

Israeli airstrikes struck two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, resulting in numerous casualties, as confirmed by health officials. The strikes came as the US continued to press Israel for a humanitarian ceasefire in light of the ongoing intense bombardment of Gaza and the increasing civilian casualties.

Gaza lost communications Sunday in its third total outage of the Israel-Hamas war, while Israel’s military said it encircled Gaza City and divided the besieged coastal strip into two.

“Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group ruling the enclave. Israeli media reported troops were expected to enter Gaza City within 48 hours. Strong explosions were seen in northern Gaza after nightfall.

The Israeli Army said on Sunday that “significant strikes” are being carried out and the Gaza Strip has been “cut into two”, Al Jazeera reported.

Army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that the Israeli forces “have encircled Gaza City” and “now there exists a south Gaza and a north Gaza”.

“Troops reached the coastline and are holding it”, he added. “There are now widespread strikes on terror infrastructure – below ground and above it,” Al Jazeera quoted Hagari as saying.

“We have a clear goal of restoring a significantly better security situation at the borders, not only in the Gaza Strip…We are ready to strike in the north at any moment,” IDF posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Ramallah in the West Bank for a previously unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

On Saturday Blinken met with Arab foreign ministers in Jordan, after holding talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists there could be no temporary cease-fire until all hostages held by Hamas are released. President Joe Biden suggested that progress was being made on the humanitarian pause.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war surpassed 9,700 with more than 4,000 of them children and minors, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that started the fighting, and 242 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the terrorist group.

Roughly 1,100 people have left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday under an apparent agreement among the United States, Egypt, Israel and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.

With inputs from agencies.