One-fifth of the rockets fired by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have been misfired in the last day, landing inside Gaza and killing civilians, the IDF said in a briefing on Saturday.
IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said that amounts to more than 550 rockets.
“They are killing their own people,” he said.
The announcement came only a few days after Hamas accused Israel of firing a rocket that struck Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, killing dozens of people. The accusation was quickly dispelled by the IDF and independent, international investigators who found the rocket emanated from a PIJ misfire.
Hagari said, however, that Israel is continuing to attack Hamas military targets in the northern Gaza Strip in preparation for an imminent ground invasion. Israel planned to enter Gaza last week but delayed first due to weather and then at the reported request of the United States to first allow entry of humanitarian aid into the southern part of the strip.
Humanitarian aid enters Gaza
On Saturday, 20 trucks carrying medicine, food and other supplies entered Gaza. Israel did not allow fuel to enter.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is not good,” Hagari said. “We continue to tell residents to move south. The humanitarian aid will only go to the south, while the IDF continues to step up attacks against Hamas in the north.”
He said some 700,000 residents had already moved south.
Hostages increase to 210
Hagari also updated the number of soldiers killed and hostages taken. He said that Israel had been in touch with the families of 307 fallen soldiers so far. He also raised the number of hostages to 210, noting that the country constantly gathers intelligence and informs families as soon as they know something new.
“That number will continue to change, and we will update you every time we tell a new family” that their loved one has been kidnapped.
Later in the day, Major General Tomer Bar, commanding officer of the Israeli Air Force, held a briefing for the squadron commanders and units in the Air Force in preparation for the next stage of the war.
“I wouldn’t want to swap places with our enemy and face an IDF division or brigade,” Bar said.
He said that the Air Force had struck Hamas with thousands of missiles thus far and it will continue to treat the enemy with its full weight.
“We will come in with full force and strike them as if we are on the first day of the battle,” Bar said. “Our role is to ’embrace’ the soldiers and say: ‘The enemy you are about to encounter met us before.'”
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