Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the occupation army forces penetrated the outskirts of Gaza City as part of their attack in the northern half of the Strip.

He added in a statement issued by his office, “We are at the height of the battle. We achieved amazing successes and crossed the outskirts of Gaza City. “We are making progress.”

Reuters quoted Netanyahu as saying that no decision had been made regarding allowing fuel to enter Gaza.

The Chief of Staff of the occupation army, Herzi Halevy, expressed his readiness, on Thursday, to ease the ban imposed by Israel on fuel for the Gaza Strip during wartime, saying that if hospitals there run out of fuel, it is possible to resupply them with supplies, but under supervision.

Following the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by Hamas on October 7, Israel besieged Gaza and launched a counterattack. It allowed the entry of humanitarian aid, but excluded fuel imports, indicating that there was a need to deprive Hamas of it.

Hospitals in the Palestinian Strip are raising increasing alarms about the decline in their electricity supplies.

He added, “We will wait when that day comes (when the fuel runs out). The fuel will be transported, under supervision, to hospitals. “We will do everything necessary to ensure that it does not reach Hamas’ infrastructure, and that it ultimately serves not war aims but real needs in terms of treating patients.”

In a sign that Israel is prepared to escalate the war, including against Hamas's allies in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region, Halevy said the air force is currently using less than half of its capabilities.

He expressed his appreciation for the support of the United States, which sent naval reinforcements to the region.

“This partnership is important,” he said, without going into details. “It can reach issues of dialogue and exchange of intelligence information, and it can also go beyond that.”

The government media office in Gaza denied the Israeli occupation’s allegations of bombing 12,000 military targets inside the Gaza Strip, stressing that reality proves that the occupation’s targets are residential neighborhoods, the homes of citizens, women and children, and gatherings of citizens in front of bakeries, hospitals and churches.

The office said that it “challenges” the occupation to disclose to the world the nature of these military targets that it claims, because they will be evidence of its lies and falsity.

He added that the occupation admitted to dropping 10,000 bombs since the beginning of the aggression, but estimates say that the amount of explosives dropped on the Gaza Strip exceeds 25,000 tons, which means about 70 tons per square kilometer.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced today, Thursday, that the number of dead as a result of the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip 27 days ago exceeded nine thousand martyrs.

The ministry reported in a statement that “the number of dead has risen to 9,061, including 3,760 children, 2,326 women, and 32,000 injured.”