Excerpt
Did IDF deception lead to massive aerial assault on Hamas’s ‘Metro’?
At midnight, the IDF Spokesperson’s English department tweeted that “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip."
At about 9 p.m. on Thursday night, the IDF began assembling ground forces along the Gaza border. Some armored and infantry battalions joined the artillery batteries that had been deployed days earlier to pound Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets.
Earlier in the day, the IDF said that a ground offensive was on the table as a viable option for the continuation of Operation Guardians of the Walls. The IDF was hitting hard at Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets from the air, but on the ground they would be expected to cause even more damage, albeit with greater risk to the Israeli forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his contribution, saying Thursday that the campaign against Hamas was far from over and that more Israeli action was coming.
At midnight, the IDF Spokesperson’s English department tweeted, “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip.”
Foreign media jumped at the tweet, interpreting it to mean that Israel was sending ground forces into Gaza, a major escalation in the current operation and a sign that it was far from over. Websites of media outlets around the world, including The Washington Post and ABC, reported the incursion. “Israeli troops have entered the Gaza Strip as conflict with Palestinians escalates, Israeli military says,” was the tweet put out by The Washington Post.
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