Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip “will escalate”, the country’s chief military spokesperson has warned, as troops push deeper into the region.

Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip “will escalate”, the country’s chief military spokesperson has warned, as troops push deeper into the region.Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troops are deployed along the northern border and “prepared for any scenario”.Dozens of militants were killed overnight, he added, but he refused to confirm the location of the ground forces after social media footage appeared to show tanks advancing on a main road in Gaza.Israel-Gaza latest: IDF in ‘direct contact’ with HamasIsraeli advances put their forces on both sides of Gaza City and surrounding areas of the north, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “second stage” in the war.”Our activities and operations will continue and escalate according to the stages of the war,” Mr Hagari said.”This is an expanded ground operation into the strip. Ground forces, tanks, infantry forces, armoured corp forces are moving towards the terrorists.”The terrorists grouped together in certain areas to try to target our forces and we attack them from the air, that’s how we managed to assault and target 20 terrorists.”There is also direct contact between the ground forces and the terrorists. The fighting is going on inside the Gaza Strip.”