The IDF announced on Sunday that it had already, over the weekend, increased the pace of expanding the Gaza invasion, including killing dozens of Hamas terrorists and striking 670 Hamas targets.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said on Sunday night that there are five IDF Divisions operating in Gaza – which would be the first time since late 2023-early 2024 that there has been such a huge volume of soldiers.
The IDF’s 143rd, 36th, and 252nd Divisions have been involved since early March and the 162nd Division eventually joined. Previously, the 98th Division has also been involved in invading Gaza.
Each division could usually be between 5,000-10,000 soldiers. For much of the war after the IDF withdrew from Khan Yunis on April 7, 2024, there were only a few thousand or even only 1,000 soldiers in Gaza at a time.
Only at the start of the war, was such a large force assembled for invading Gaza.
Over the weekend, Israeli forces invaded and started to take control over large portions of northern and southern Gaza, which they had not entered in such large numbers of forces since 2024.
IDF attacks focused on Hamas forces, their weapons, tunnels, and anti-tank missile crews.
Notably, the IDF did not indicate wide-ranging attacks on headquarters, possibly because Hamas has been unable to reorganize new large command centers since the IDF renewed hostilities in early March.
The tone of the IDF update still seemed to leave room for negotiations with Hamas to halt the wider invasion and reach a new ceasefire and hostage exchange deal.
However, IDF sources rejected reports that orders were circulating to commanders in the field to prepare for a potential imminent ceasefire.
Still, the IDF message did not indicate how far the larger invasion had expanded.
Already several weeks ago, the IDF had conquered or taken control over 40-50% of Gaza, and the operation could raise that number to 70-80%, leaving most Palestinians in the coastal al-Muwasi humanitarian zone, parts of Khan Yunis, and parts of central Gaza.
IDF avoiding certain areas in Gaza
There are still certain areas where the IDF is avoiding acting so as not to accidentally kill Israeli hostages held by Hamas, as it has throughout the war.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir traveled inside Gaza to meet with Southern Command Chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, 162nd Division Commander Brig.-Gen. Sagiv Dahan, and the fighters of the 401st Brigade.
He told them that the current operation will break any remaining fighting spirit of Hamas and give the political echelon the leverage to return the hostages held by Hamas.
Hamas and foreign reports said that the IDF attacks since the end of last week had killed over 260 civilians and injured over 600.
IDF sources said that it was too early to know whether these numbers were correct, but that it was not impossible, given that almost all of Hamas is hiding among Palestinian civilians, even as Israel is trying its hardest to keep the number of incidental killings of civilians low.
Still, given that the IDF said that dozens of terrorists were killed, the number of civilians would probably be a good bit lower than 260.
Late Sunday, Hamas managed to fire two rockets from central Gaza toward Kissufim on the Gaza border. One rocket was shot down, while the other fell in an open field. It was unclear if the second rocket was not shot down because Iron Dome could see that it would fall in an open field or if Iron Dome simply failed to shoot it down.
Generally, Hamas has failed to mount a serious rocket threat to Israel since January 2024, with some temporary exceptions at unique points, such as when the IDf first invaded Rafah in late Spring 2024.
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