[Source: Reuters]

Israeli air and ground forces are stepping up operations in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s chief military spokesperson said, amid reports of heavy bombing of the besieged enclave.

Internet and mobile phone services were cut off in the Palestinian territory, a local telecoms firm and the Red Crescent said.

“In the last hours, we intensified the attacks in Gaza,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised news briefing.

He said the air force was conducting extensive strikes on tunnels and other infrastructure.

“In addition to the attacks carried out in the last few days, ground forces are expanding their operations tonight,” he said, raising the question of whether a long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza may be beginning.

White House spokesman John Kirby said he had seen reports about Israel expanding its ground operations in Gaza but would not comment on that.

Israeli forces have massed outside Gaza, where Israel has been conducting an intense campaign of aerial bombardment since a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Earlier on Friday, Palestinian mobile phone service provider Jawwal said that services including phone and internet had been cut by heavy bombardment.

A statement from the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had completely lost contact with its operations room in Gaza and all its teams operating on the ground.

But while Israel announced a step up in operations, White House Spokesman Kirby said the U.S. supports a pause in Israeli military activity in Gaza to get humanitarian aid, fuel and electricity to civilians there.

Kirby also said that if getting more than 200 hostages abducted by Hamas out of Gaza requires a localized temporary pause, then the United States is in support of that.

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