2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip

2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
On the evening of 27 October 2023, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a large scale ground incursion inside the Gaza Strip with the intent to attack Hamas militants and locate and rescue Israeli hostages.
Background
After Hamas militants invaded Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel declared war against Hamas. Israel moved to mobilize 300,000 reservists and began to move armor close to the border with the Gaza Strip in the aftermath. Included in the amassing of armor were Namer armored personnel carriers and Merkava tanks.
Prior to the raids, Israel had called for the more than one million people living in the north half of the Gaza Strip to evacuate during a 24-hour window, while Hamas instructed those residents to stay put. The IDF had urged around 1.1 million civilians to leave North Gaza so they would not be hurt or caught in crossfire, and Israeli officials said that the window was left at 24-hours to reduce the time for Hamas to conduct military preparation in the area. However, aid groups stated that the time window was too short to evacuate the one million people, and lack of electricity in Gaza hampered the ability of electronic communications regarding the evacuation to reach Gazans. Israel had dropped leaflets in Gaza City containing the evacuation order, in addition to electronic communications.
On 21 October 2023, the Israeli army dropped more leaflets in Gaza with the message: "Urgent warning! To the residents of Gaza: your presence to the North of Wadi Gaza is putting your lives at risk. Anyone who chooses not to evacuate from the North of the Gaza Strip to the South of the Gaza Strip may be identified as a partner in a terrorist organization."
Raids inside Gaza Strip
On 13 October 2023, the Israeli Defense Forces sent armored vehicles and infantry into the Gaza Strip, stating that their goals were to attack Hamas militants and to rescue hostages that had been abducted to Gaza by Hamas. The operation, according to Israeli officials, was not part of a larger and widely anticipated ground invasion, but rather a raid in which troops only temporarily enter the Gaza Strip. The IDF confirmed the same day that Israeli remains were located and retrieved in the Gaza Strip.
Another raid, headed by the Givati Brigade and the 162nd Armored Division, took place between 25 and 26 October and was the largest offensive so far, including tanks, other vehicles and IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers. A followup raid took place the next night in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood of Gaza City.
Invasion
On the evening of 27 October, the IDF launched a large-scale ground assault on the towns of Beit Hanoun and Bureij in the Gaza Strip. The assault came amid a series of large-scale Israeli airstrikes that cut off mobile communications and internet access in Gaza.
On 28 October, Israel said that the units deployed inside Gaza Strip the previous night were still on the ground, which marked the beginning of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. The IDF announced it is "expanding ground operations" in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military reissued a call to Gaza residents to evacuate the north as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the "second phase of the war had begun".
The IDF advanced on three axes, simultaneously air strikes and artillery bombardment increased in intensity. On 29 October, Israeli soldiers captured the town of As-Siafa in the Gaza Strip and raised their flag in the town.
On 30 October, the IDF blocked the Salah al-Din Road, which is a major thoroughfare connecting the northern and southern parts of the Gaza Strip. Additionally, Israeli tanks were spotted in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. A local resident told AFP that the Israelis "have cut the Salah al-Din road and are firing at any vehicle that tries to go along it." Witnesses reported, and a video showed, an Israeli tank firing on a taxi with a white flag on its roof that had attempted to turn around. An Israeli military spokesman said "The IDF was not shown any proof that this is a civilian car and there's no information on who is inside." A kidnapped IDF private was freed the same day in an operation headed by the IDF, with assistance from Shin Bet and Mossad. On 30 October in northwest Gaza the Al-Qassam Brigades and the DFLP's National Resistance Brigades engaged Israeli forces. Alongside that, the National Resistance Brigades bombarded Israeli vehicles with heavy mortar shells.
On 1 November IDF reported the deaths of 16 soldiers, 15 killed inside Gaza and one outside Palestinian territory.
Israeli strategy
The Israeli government has not as of 30 October described operations as an invasion although according to Vox it has "both political and tactical reasons to obfuscate" while the New York Times says "the Israeli military appears to have begun an invasion of the Gaza Strip". Zoran Kusovac of Al Jazeera has stated that it is unclear whether the actions are a "probe" or the start of something larger. The United States has urged Israel to avoid a full-scale invasion and instead conduct "surgical" operations to avoid casualties and a regional escalation. Israeli military sources say there are over 20,000 IDF forces in Gaza as of 31 October.
On 29 October, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said he expects the "second stage of the war" to last "months". The following phases are expected to be removal of small groups of resistance, and, finally, withdrawal from Gaza.
See also
Outline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
List of military engagements during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
Timeline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
October 2023 Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip
Notes
References
Attacks in Asia in 2023
Battles during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
Battles in 2023
Hostage rescue operations
Military operations of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
Cross-border operations