Tanks line up at Gaza border as ground invasion appears imminent

Israel appeared to be readying its expected ground invasion of the Gaza Strip early Friday, with a large border town evacuated and fleets of tanks lining up on the border where hundreds of thousands of soldiers are already camped out.

Israeli officials have been warning for days that it will soon launch its ground invasion, as they amassed at least 300,000 troops along the border in response to Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct. 7, when the terrorist organization killed at least 1,400 people — mostly civilians — and took more than 200 others hostage, the Voice of America reports.

Speaking to those troops on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said they would soon see Gaza “from the inside.

“Whoever sees Gaza from afar will soon see it from the inside,” he said. “The order will come.”

Gallant’s meeting with troops came as Economy Minister Nir Barkat announced that the Israeli Defense Forces had been given a “green light” to bring the offensive to Gaza — a roughly 140-square-mile parcel of land between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea.