IDF begins Gaza City ground offensive

The “main phase” of Israel’s long-awaited ground offensive on Gaza City has begun, an Israeli military official has said.

The official told reporters at a briefing that the number of ground troops moving deeper into the city would increase in the coming days.

The official said Gaza City was “the main stronghold of Hamas,” estimating that between 2,000 and 3,000 Hamas militants remain in the area.

It is also home to hundreds of thousands of civilians. The military said that more than 350,000 people had already left and that Israel continues to do everything it can to get civilians out of harms way.

The official also reiterated claims made earlier this month, that the Israeli military has established control over 40% of Gaza City.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for Israel to be banned from international sports competitions, for as long as its “barbaric acts” in Gaza continue.

“The sports organizations should consider whether it’s ethical for Israel to keep participating in international competitions,” Sánchez told members of his Socialist Party on Monday.

Sánchez spoke a day after pro-Palestinian protests in Madrid turned violent, causing the cancellation of the final stage of the “Vuelta a España” cycling race.

Earlier, Sánchez expressed “admiration for the Spanish people mobilizing for just causes like Palestine” by protesting during the race. In response, Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar branded Sanchez “a disgrace to Spain” in a post on X.

The United Nations commission that found Israel has committed genocide in Gaza “incited” by Israeli officials has called on the international community not to “stay silent.”

The commission concluded that Netanyahu, Herzog and now-former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant incited the commission of genocide – and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action to “punish this incitement.”

The commission urged the government of Israel to comply with its international legal obligations, “including to end the genocide in the Gaza Strip.” It further called for intervention from the international community.

“The international community cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge, the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity,” said Navi Pillay, chair of the commission. “Every day of inaction costs lives and erodes the credibility of the international community.”

Families of Israeli hostages protested outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem after news emerged that Israel had launched a ground offensive in Gaza City.

Families of Israeli hostages protested outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem after news emerged that Israel had launched a ground offensive in Gaza City.

“We heard the bombs getting stronger all over Gaza. Our children are there. The Prime Minister Netanyahu, instead of saving our children, is bombing them,” she told Reuters.

The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters said Netanyahu was not at his Jerusalem residence during last night’s protest. The group said this morning it had established a permanent encampment outside his residence.

The Israeli military says its troops “have begun expanded ground operations in Gaza City” as a part of what it dubbed Operation “Gideon’s Chariots II.”

“The troops’ activity began according to the operational plan and is expected to expand in line with the current situational assessment,” it said.

The Israeli Air Force has struck more than 850 “terror targets” and “hundreds of terrorists” in Gaza City in the past week, the IDF said in the statement.

The IDF said its troops are operating in the security zone along the border facing the western Negev communities and in the Rafah and Khan Younis areas. The military’s statement said its troops also continue operating in the northern part of the enclave.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was already facing a difficult diplomatic task. Now Israel has launched a full scale ground offensive on Gaza City while he is in the region. 

Even more challenging, the news came while he is in Qatar’s capital Doha to try to encourage the Gulf state to keep mediating between Israel and Hamas. Qatari officials are furious after Israel fired rockets at the Hamas political office in the same city last week. 

Yesterday Arab leaders called on the Whitehouse to put pressure on Israel. “We expect our strategic partners to use their influence on Israel to stop this behavior. We really do expect that,” the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jasem alBudaiwi, said yesterday in response to a question from NBC News. 

“They have leverage and influence on Israel and it’s about time this leverage was used.”  

Instead the Trump administration is standing aside while Israel puts more pressure on Hamas. But it’s also putting huge pressure on America’s relations with its Arab allies. And so far Hamas has not surrendered.

Statements made by Israeli civilian and military authorities along with the “pattern of conduct” of Israeli forces indicate Israel’s actions in Gaza have been “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians” in the enclave as a group, the United Nations’ human rights office said after a UN commission found Israel had committed genocide in the enclave.

The commission had been investigating the events on and since Oct. 7, 2023 for the past nearly two years, the UN agency said, adding that it had concluded Israeli authorities and security forces had committed “four of the five genocidal acts” defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Those acts include “killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births,” the UN body said.

“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza,” Navi Pillay, Chair of the Commission, said in a statement after the group concluded that Netanyahu, Herzog and Gallant had incited the commission of genocide.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in Doha, Qatar, less than a week after Israel attacked senior Hamas figures meeting in the capital of the U.S. ally.

Rubio met with Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, upon his arrival. The pair shook hands, but offered no public remarks.

Earlier, Rubio called for Qatar to continue its role as mediator between Israel and Hamas, telling reporters “we hope they’ll re-engage despite everything that’s happened” while departing Tel Aviv for Doha.

“If any country in the world can help mediate it, Qatar is the one,” he said.

Qatar condemned the Israeli attack as “cowardly and treacherous,” but said it wouldn’t deter it from its role as mediator.

Rubio also told reporters that the U.S. and Qatar are on the verge of finalizing an enhanced defense cooperation agreement, without providing specifics.

Large explosions were seen overnight in Gaza from southern Israel as the IDF expanded its military operation in Gaza City. In a social media post, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Gaza was “burning,” adding that Israel will “not relent.”

Israel has launched a “significant” operation in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said this morning.

He made the remarks while testifying in his long-running corruption trial in Tel Aviv.

“We have launched a significant operation in Gaza,” Netanyahu told the court.

Far-right Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also posted on X, declaring that Israel’s long-awaited campaign had begun overnight.

An independent United Nations inquiry has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

In a new report, the team of three experts commissioned by the UN say that Israel has committed four of the five “genocidal acts” defined under international law.

“It is clear there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention,” wrote Navi Pillay, the head of the team and a former UN rights chief.

The report concludes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had indicted the commission of genocide.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it rejects the report, denouncing it as “distorted and false.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel had “begun to take operations” in Gaza City, increasing pressure on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire deal.

“We think we have a very short window of time in which a deal could happen,” he told reporters before leaving Tel Aviv for Doha, Qatar. “We don’t have months anymore, and we probably have days and maybe a few weeks. So it’s a key moment.”

Rubio’s visit to Qatar comes after an Israeli strike on its soil last week that outraged Doha, a key mediator in the Israel-Hamas war, as well as other U.S. allies in the region. The Trump administration has tried to distance itself from the strike, which Israel said targeted Hamas political leaders.

Rubio said Qatar could play a “very key role” in negotiating an end to the conflict.

“We don’t want to see anything that undermines that,” he said. “So that’s why we added it to the trip.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Gaza was “burning” as the Israeli military “strikes with an iron fist.”

“Gaza is burning,” he said in a post on X. “The IDF strikes with an iron fist at the terrorist infrastructure and IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”

“We will not relent and we will not go back — until the completion of the mission,” he said.

It was not immediately clear whether Katz was commenting on a new ground operation.

The Israeli military’s expanded offensive in Gaza City has begun, with forces ramping up strikes on the famine-stricken area overnight.

“The IDF has begun dismantling Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza City,” the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X this morning. “Gaza City is a dangerous combat zone.”

The Israeli military and government did not immediately respond to requests for more information from NBC News.

The development comes as Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Gaza was “burning” in a post on X this morning and as hospital officials reported a growing number of people killed in strikes.