Hamas vows 'full force' after Israel steps up Gaza ground operations

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Hamas said on Saturday its militants in Gaza were ready to confront Israeli attacks with «full force» after Israel's military widened its air and ground attacks on the Palestinian enclave.
The Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza said earlier its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in areas near the border with Israel after Israel reported intensified attacks in Gaza.

«In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight,» Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised news briefing on Friday evening, raising the question of whether a long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza may be beginning.

He said Israel's air force was conducting extensive strikes on tunnels dug by Hamas and other infrastructure.

The armed wing of Hamas said late on Friday its fighters were clashing with Israeli troops in Gaza's northeastern town of Beit Hanoun and in the central area of Al-Bureij.

«The Al-Qassam brigades and all the Palestinian resistance forces are completely ready to confront (Israel's) aggression with full force and frustrate its incursions,» Hamas said in a statement early on Saturday.

«Netanyahu and his defeated army will not be able to achieve any military victory,» referring to the Israeli prime minister.

Israeli ground forces had massed outside Gaza, where Israel has been conducting an intense campaign of aerial bombardment since a deadly Oct.

7 attack by hundreds of Hamas gunmen on Israeli communities near the strip. Israel says 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 200 taken hostage, some of them foreign nationals or with dual Israeli nationality.

Al Jazeera, which was broadcasting live footage