In a televised briefing, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said ground forces had carried out raids inside Gaza. The raid was carried out by "Armed and Infantry" battalions, they said.

Elaborating on the incursion into Gaza, Hagari said: "Overnight tanks and infantry forces carried out raids. These are raids to kill the squad of terrorists who were preparing for the next phase against us in the war."

He also said the Israeli military was trying to locate the missing hostages. On October 7, when Hamas militants infiltrated and attacked cities in southern Israel, they took more than 200 people hostage.

In retaliation, Israel has devastated the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory with air strikes for more than two weeks. At the same time, Israel is also mobilizing troops on the Gaza border for a ground attack.

The Israeli military said it had targeted "more than 24 military targets in the Gaza Strip" over the past 320 hours.

The army said in a statement that the terrorist bases attacked included tunnels and dozens of operational command centers. Islamic Jihad militants, military compounds and observation posts were also targeted.

Hamas has also issued a statement, in which it claimed that they destroyed the equipment of the Israeli raiding team and forced them to retreat.

Hamas said in its statement that the fighters fought the infiltrating army, destroyed two bulldozers and a tank and forced the army to retreat before returning safely to the base.

Israel has warned more than a million residents in northern Gaza to move south for their safety. The UN says more than half of the region's 24.<> million people have now been displaced.

There are believed to be hundreds of thousands of civilians in and around Gaza City in the north, who are either unwilling to leave or unable to leave.