Israel fighter jets mobilised as troops ready to move in to Gaza

Footage released by the IDF showed precision airstrikes on at least 100 military targets in Gaza that killed members of the Hamas leadership.

Smoke rises from buildings in northern Gaza as the Israeli military conducts a bombardment on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

Israeli fighter jets carried out a sustained aerial bombardment of military targets and terrorist leaders in northern Gaza on Sunday, as soldiers repelled strikes in the north of the country and waited for orders to proceed with a ground invasion.

Footage released by the Israel Defence Forces showed precision airstrikes on at least 100 military targets in Gaza that killed members of the Hamas leadership, including the commander of its Nukhba force, Bilal al-Qedri, responsible for some of the civilian massacres last weekend. Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets were also hit.

It came as at least three people were wounded inside Israel on Sunday during a cross-border ­antitank bombardment from Lebanon targeting the northern village of Shtula. An IDF post was also struck, with the military responding in kind and closing access to the region about 4km from the border.

Elsewhere, Iran continued to pledge its co-operation with Hamas after a meeting between Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Hamas leader ­Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar, as a deadline passed for Gazan citizens to move to the south of the territory by 4pm Saturday (midnight AEDT).

That deadline has been extended multiple times; Hamas is urging residents to stay in place, branding leaflet drops and Israeli messaging to urge a civilian evacuation as “Israeli propaganda”. The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza said at least 2329 people had been killed since last weekend’s attacks, with 9042 injured.

Meanwhile, Australians unable to leave Israel because of cancelled repatriation flights were given an assurance by Foreign Minister Penny Wong that ­arrangements were being made to speed them out of the country using a mixture of “government chartered and air force planes”.

“If you wish to leave, we strongly encourage you to take the first option that becomes available to you,” Senator Wong said in a series of social media posts. “Please do not wait for a different option.”

She said Australia would provide an “initial $10 million” of humanitarian aid to Gaza civilians affected by the conflict, to be distributed via UNICEF, the Red Cross and UN Operations in the field.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops on Saturday and made it clear that a widely expected second phase of the operation would begin imminently.

A priority for officials weighing a ground incursion into Gaza is the safety of about 150 hostages, many of them foreigners, that Hamas is known to have captured during its raiding of villages last weekend. Americans number the highest among the slain foreigners, with at least 29 dead and 15 missing.

Hamas has already threatened to kill hostages one by one for every unannounced Israeli airstrike that hits the district, while the bodies of some captives were found by the Israeli military during localised operations inside Gaza, according to military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner.

Families members of those taken hostage staged a protest outside the defence ministry in Tel Aviv at the weekend, demanding answers and greater help from the government, among them Avichai Brodetz, whose wife and three children are among the kidnapped.

“I served in the military in compulsory (service) and reserve duty and love my country. I am not angry at anyone, but I want a change in policy and that first of all the women and children be released,” Mr Brodetz, a farmer, said. “I think both sides in the war can agree on that. There cannot be any organisation in the world that would want to harm a mother and her children.”

Efforts have been made to dispatch emergency medicine through the International Committee of the Red Cross to captives held inside Gaza, some of whom suffer from serious conditions requiring immediate medical attention.

Ronen Tzur, who heads the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said if they did not receive the care required then Israel should consider withholding medical aid from Hamas prisoners under its authority.

Those prisoners, Mr Tzur said, were already receiving “the best medical care available” but, if left without a choice, “we need to change the rules of the game with this enemy”.