It will likely take “a few months” for Israeli forces to complete their mission in Gaza City, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“We estimate it will take a few months to take control of Gaza City and a few more months — even more than that — to clear the city of the infrastructure,” IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin said in Hebrew during a briefing on Tuesday.
Overnight Tuesday, Israeli forces launched an intensified ground offensive in Gaza City. Before the operation began, about 300,000 people fled the city to head to southern Gaza, the IDF said Monday.
“Air, ground and intelligence forces” are working together to target Hamas military targets in Gaza City, Defrin said.
The Palestinian Authority called for “exceptional international intervention,” to stop the IDF military campaign in Gaza City and across the Gaza Strip in a Tuesday statement from their Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“It considers this an attempt to target civilians and transform Gaza City into a mass grave and an uninhabitable land, as is the case with the wider Gaza Strip. It also forces nearly one million Palestinians to flee and move amidst a vicious cycle of death,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in the statement.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Tom Soufi Burridge
