Internet and phone lines were cut off across the Gaza Strip on Thursday as Israeli tanks and infantry lines rolled into Gaza City to begin its ground operations against Hamas. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been operating in the city’s periphery for several weeks, but the troops and tanks began moving into Gaza City, where some 600,000 people are living.

“The strategy right now is to defeat Hamas and apply pressure on Hamas, which can lead to a deal or can lead to rescue missions (to free hostages),” said Israeli army spokesperson Nadav Shoshani. 

The latest advance saw services cut for The Palestinian Telecommunications Company, which said its lines were suspended “due to the ongoing aggression and the targeting of the main network routes.”

A Gazan who only identified himself as Ismail, told Reuters, that the blackout in the area was a sign that the fighting in the city would begin to escalate following recent airstrikes that have killed dozens along perimeter neighborhoods. 

“The disconnection of internet and phone services is a bad omen. It has always been a bad signal something very brutal is going to happen,” he said. 

Gaza-wide blackouts preceded Israel’s expanded incursion into the Strip in 2023, along with operations in Khan Younis and Rafah last year.  

At least 79 Palestinians have been killed by the bombing and gunfire that broke out across the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, most of which took place in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health. 

Israel has ordered Palestinian refugees to flee from the city amid the fighting, but only 40% of the city’s estimated population have been able to get out. 

Local officials and humanitarian groups claim the refugees not only risk being killed by the ongoing airstrikes around the city, but that there is also nowhere safe to flee to in the war-torn Palestinian enclave. 

The IDF has maintained that it is dropping leaflets urging residents to flee to designated “humanitarian zones” south of Gaza City, zones that aid agencies say are inadequate to handle hundreds of thousands of refugees. 

The Israeli officials have also accused Hamas of spreading propaganda among civilians that leaving Gaza City is too dangerous, allowing the terror group to keep hiding among the refugees. 

As the war approaches its third year, with no clear end in sight, the total death toll in Gaza has surpassed 65,000, according to Gaza health officials, who do not differentiate between terrorists and civilians.   

With Post wires.