We begin tonight with a major escalation in Israel and Hamas was and what may turn out to be the next phase in a long and grueling battle. Two US officials telling CBSN that Israel appears to be begun a rolling start to its long-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza. Israel Defense Forces are saying that its ground operation in Gaza is expanding with new targeted attacks on Hamas infrastructure and its underground tunnel network. Tonight Palestinians are facing a near total blackout of phone and internet services following an unprecedented barrage of new airstrikes. The US is expressing concern about what this means for the more than two hundred hostages still being held by Hamas with negotiations apparently still ongoing. Jordan’s foreign minister warned that Israel’s ground war on the Gaza Strip will result in “a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions”.

We’re just less than a mile from the border with Gaza and there have been explosions here pretty much all night. The constant sound of jets and drones explosions off in the distance. Even after weeks of airstrikes, what happened tonight and continues to happen is on another level. Israeli tanks have crossed into Gaza. Hamas says they’re fighting on two locations, as you said. In terms of scale, US officials tell CBSN this appears to be a rolling start to ground offensive. The skyline over Gaza City lit up in the most ferocious and sustained bombardment the territory has seen since the Israeli military unleashed its aerial assault on Hamas militants nearly three weeks ago. Whether the series of powerful explosions was the precursor to the major ground invasion, the Israeli Defense Forces only say ground operations were expanding tonight, warning residents of Gaza City to seek safer conditions that the IDF would persist in its attacks on the city and surrounding areas. This is said to show the impact of the bombardment from inside Gaza itself tonight. Telecom firms reported that the internet and cell phone services were cut off across the Palestinian territory. Today’s heavy bombardment follows two nights of raids as Israeli troops went on the offensive by land and sea. The IDF released this video set to show a naval commando unit conducting a raid on what it called a Hamas terrorist infrastructure, apparently reaching the shore at one point and engaging in ferocious firefights. That coincided with another nighttime ground attack. This video claiming to show Israeli tanks rolling across the border, artillery and aircraft striking anti-tank missile launchers and operational headquarters. The full force of Israeli airstrikes dropping whole city blocks, one of two hundred and fifty targets the IDF say they attacked claiming their aim is the destruction of terrorist units.