News Center- Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiya area, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday.

“We expanded its ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip, with troops pushing into Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood.

The Israeli army said ground troops had begun conducting operations in the Shujaiya area “in order to expand the security zone”, referring to the buffer zone established by the Israeli army between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

The Israeli army also announced that a senior Hamas commander identified as Hassan Farhat was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the coastal Lebanese city of Sidon overnight.

Hassan Farhat had headed Hamas’s forces in the western sector of Lebanon, according to the Israel Defense Forces.