Israeli troops carry out an hourslong ground raid into Gaza before an expected wider incursion

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops and tanks launched an hourslong ground raid into northern Gaza overnight into Thursday, the military said, striking several terrorist targets in order to “prepare the battlefield” before a widely expected ground invasion after more than two weeks of devastating airstrikes.

During the overnight raid, soldiers killed fighters and destroyed terrorist infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions, the military said. It said that no Israelis were wounded. There was no immediate confirmation of any Palestinian casualties.

Israeli Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman, said the limited incursion was “part of our preparations for the next stages of the war.”

Israel also said it had also carried out around 250 airstrikes across Gaza in the last 24 hours, targeting tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and other terrorist infrastructure.

The raid came after the U.N. warned that’s it’s on the verge of running out of fuel in the Gaza Strip, forcing it to sharply curtail relief efforts in the territory, which has also been under a complete siege since Hamas’ bloody rampage across southern Israel ignited the war earlier this month. More than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Israel.

Gaza’s Health Ministry, an arm of Hamas, said Wednesday that more than 750 people were killed over the past 24 hours, higher than the 704 killed the previous day. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the death toll, and the ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. Hamas claims more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict.

The Israeli military says it only strikes terrorist targets. Hamas operates among civilians in densely populated Gaza. Palestinian terrorists have fired rocket barrages into Israel since the war began and are holding more than 200 hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’ capacity to govern Gaza or threaten it again, while also saying it doesn’t want to reoccupy the territory from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005.

Benny Gantz, a retired general and a member of Israel’s war Cabinet, said any possible ground offensive would be only “one stage in a long-term process that includes security, political and social aspects that will take years.”

“The campaign will soon ramp up with greater force,” he added.

The warning by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen.

Gaza’s population has also been running out of food, water and medicine. About 1.4 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes, with nearly half of them crowded into U.N. shelters. Hundreds of thousands remain in northern Gaza, despite Israel ordering them to evacuate to the south, saying those who remain might be considered “accomplices” of Hamas.

Israel has vowed to continue the siege until all hostages held by Hamas and other terrorist groups are released.

Israel has also been exchanging near daily fire with Iranian-backed Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.

Israeli airstrikes and drone attacks early Thursday caused fires in open land in the southern Lebanon border town of Aita al Shaab, where clashes have intensified, Lebanon’s state-run news agency said. It reported strikes late Wednesday on towns in the Tyre district, saying a mattress factory was hit.

Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct. 7 in southern Israel stunned the country with its brutality, its unprecedented toll and the failure of intelligence agencies to know it was coming. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech Wednesday night that he will be held accountable, but only after Hamas was defeated.

“We will get to the bottom of what happened,” he said. “This debacle will be investigated. Everyone will have to give answers, including me.”

Chehayeb reported from Beirut and Teibel from Jerusalem. Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Samy Magdy in Cairo, contributed to this report.