IDF announces start of 'Operation Gideon's Chariots' Gaza ground offensive

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the start of a new "extensive ground operation" in Gaza in a statement Sunday.

The announcement comes after intensified airstrikes launched by the Israeli Air Force over the past week.

"IDF troops have begun extensive ground operations throughout northern and southern Gaza as part of Operation 'Gideon's Chariots,'" the IDF announced Sunday morning.

The IDF statement said that "over 670 Hamas terror targets" were struck and "dozens of terrorists" were "eliminated." The statement added that IDF troops had "dismantled terrorist infrastructure sites above and below ground, and are currently being deployed in key positions within Gaza."

Over 160 people were killed across Gaza since Saturday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

At least 3,131 Palestinians have been killed and over 8,600 have been injured since the end of the two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on March 18, the Gaza Ministry of Health previously said.

Conditions on the ground are "getting worse not day by day, but hour by hour" as bombardments intensify and access to emergency care becomes nearly impossible, according to ABC News' Diaa Ostaz, reporting from Khan Younis.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, speaking at the Arab League summit in Baghdad, said he was "alarmed by reported plans by Israel to expand ground operations" and renewed his appeal for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. He also issued one of his strongest statements yet on the crisis in Gaza, calling the situation for Palestinians "beyond description, beyond atrocious & beyond inhumane."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved the plans for operation Gideon's Chariots on May 5. The operation will include a "broad attack that includes the displacement of most of the population of the Gaza Strip," an IDF spokesperson said on May 5 when the operation was announced. At the time, an IDF spokesperson said the operation would include a "broad attack that includes the displacement of most of the population of the Gaza Strip."

Israeli forces plan to remain in Gaza after the operation is complete, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on May 7.