CAIRO, Oct 18 (Reuters) – The Israeli military said on Friday it sent another army unit to support its forces operating in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, where residents said tanks blew up roads and houses as they thrust further into the territory.

Residents of Jabalia in northern Gaza said Israeli tanks had reached the heart of the camp, using heavy air and ground fire, after pushing through suburbs and residential districts.
They added that the Israeli army was destroying dozens of houses on a daily basis, from the air and the ground and by placing bombs in buildings then detonating them remotely.

The Israeli military said its forces, which have been operating in Jabalia for the past two weeks, killed dozens of militants in close-quarters combat on Thursday and carried out aerial strikes and dismantled military infrastructure.

Later on Friday, residents in Jabalia and two nearby towns said communications and internet services were cut off, disrupting rescue operations by ambulance teams and the ability of people affected by Israeli operations to seek help.

The Gaza health ministry said Israeli military strikes had killed at least 30 Palestinians so far on Friday, many of them in northern Gaza.

The escalation of Israel’s Jabalia operation came a day after it said it had killed the country’s number one enemy, Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s chief, whom it blamed for ordering the Oct. 7 attack on Israel — the deadliest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.