“Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters, calling it a “significant stage” in Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group in the enclave.
It comes as Gaza sees its third communication outage in nearly a month-long war.
The “collapse in connectivity” across Gaza, reported by internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org and confirmed by Palestinian telecom company Paltel, made it even more complicated to convey details of the new stage of the military offensive.
Gaza has been hit by an unprecedented level of airstrikes as the Israeli military said it was conducting a “significant attack” only hours after announcing it had severed the enclave into two having reached the Mediterranean coastline.
Israeli warplanes also struck two refugee camps, killing at least 53 people and wounding dozens in central Gaza, the zone where Israel’s military had urged Palestinian civilians to seek refuge, health officials said. Israel said it would press on with its offensive to crush Hamas, despite US appeals for brief pauses to get aid to desperate civilians.
More than 9,700 Palestinians have been killed in nearly a month of war in Gaza, with about 4,000 of them minors, said Hamas-run Health Ministry