"Gaza Strip cut into two", says Israeli military amid "significant strikes"

TEL AVIV: The Israeli Army said on Sunday that "significant strikes" are being carried out and the Gaza Strip has been "cut into two", Al Jazeera reported.

Army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that the Israeli forces "have encircled Gaza City" and "now there exists a south Gaza and a north Gaza".

"Troops reached the coastline and are holding it", he added. "There are now widespread strikes on terror infrastructure - below ground and above it," Al Jazeera quoted Hagari as saying. In another statement,

Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, during a meeting in the Northern Command, said that the IDF is ready to strike in northern Gaza at "any moment".

"We have a clear goal of restoring a significantly better security situation at the borders, not only in the Gaza Strip...We are ready to strike in the north at any moment," IDF posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel will not agree to a ceasefire until the Hamas terror group releases the hostages it is holding, The Times of Israel reported.

"Take this (word 'ceasefire') out of the lexicon. We will continue until we defeat them; we do not have an alternative," Netanyahu is quoted saying in a statement from his office.

Meanwhile, Israeli envoy to the US, Michael Herzog called Gaza as the world's "biggest terror complex", Times of Israel reported.

He said that Gaza is "the biggest terror complex in the world," with tens of thousands of fighters and rockets, among other weaponry -- and 310 miles (500 kilometers) of underground tunnels.

"This is what we're up against. And we have to uproot it, because if we do not, they will strike again and again," Times of Israel quoted Herzog as saying at CBS's "Face the Nation" interview.