Israel attacked Gaza with its air and ground forces, intensifying the conflict

Israel announced that its army was attacking the Gaza Strip by air and land , raising the possibility of a total land invasion

Photo: AFP / Getty Images

Israel sent its armed forces to Gaza on Friday morning , in a major escalation of violence between Palestinians firing rockets at Israel and Israeli forces conducting air strikes in Gaza.

It is not yet known if the raid of Israel was a limited attempt to destroy rocket bases or kill leaders of Hamas , the militant group that controls Loop, or if it was a full-fledged invasion, similar to that of 2014 that killed more than 2 , 000 Palestinians, reported The New York Times .

ia was announced by the Israel Defense Forces with a one-line tweet at 12: 22 am (5 : 22 Thursday pm on the east coast of the United States): “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel ignored international calls for a reduction in the escalation of aggression, when after four days of aerial bombardment it failed to quell the rocket fire against Israeli communities from the Palestinian enclave in Gaza.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said that the military operations were directed at Hamas and would continue “as long as necessary.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been warning the entire time that an extended campaign was coming .

The decision to intensify the escalation during the early hours of Friday came at an especially delicate moment, as Israel grappled with the worst outbreak of violence between Arabs and Jews within its borders in years, reported Bloomberg .

Israel suffered a new attack from another front on Wednesday night, after three rockets launched from Lebanon will crash into the Mediterranean off the northern coast of Israel, generating the ghost of a second battlefield with Lebanese militants from Hezbollah backed by Iran.