US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated “the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defense Forces’ operations” in a call Friday with the Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, according to a Pentagon readout.

Austin also emphasized the urgent need for “humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza” and for Hamas to release all hostages, the Pentagon said.

Austin’s call comes as the Israel Defense Forces announced it is “expanding ground operations” in the Gaza Strip and “operating forcefully” on all fronts to fulfill its goals in the war with Hamas.

Norway “happy to have voted” for UN ceasefire resolution in Israel-Hamas conflict

A United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict is important “to ensure that humanitarian assistance can enter Gaza,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.

Eide said that the country is “happy to have voted” for the resolution because it was “important” for aid to get through.

“The world community agrees on many of the key issues, including the importance of protecting civilians and addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” Eide said of the resolution, which passed Friday with an overwhelming majority.

While Norway recognized “the resolution does not contain all the elements that we should ideally have included,” it was still “a compromise between different positions,” and that “requires that we too show a willingness to compromise,” Eide added.

IDF says it cannot guarantee the safety of journalists reporting from Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told international news organizations that they cannot guarantee the safety of journalists reporting from Gaza, according to a Reuters report published Friday.

International news agencies Reuters and Agence France Presse (AFP) contacted the Israeli military this week for assurance their journalists on the ground in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli airstrikes.

The IDF responded in a letter to both agencies saying they are “targeting all Hamas military activity throughout Gaza” and “[u]nder these circumstances, [they] cannot guarantee [their] employees’ safety, and strongly urge [them] to take all necessary measures for their safety.”

The letter also said Hamas deliberately put military operations “in the vicinity of journalists and civilians,” Reuters wrote. Hamas did not immediately respond when asked if these allegations put forth by the IDF were true, Reuters said.

Reuters and AFP have both expressed concern over the safety of journalists in Gaza.

Gaza could face days without internet, experts warn

A top Palestinian telecoms provider said it suffered a “complete disruption of all communication and internet services” in Gaza on Friday as Israel continued to pound the coastal enclave with airstrikes in as the Israel Defense Forces announced it is “expanding ground operations.”

Independent internet monitoring groups told CNN it was the worst internet blackout in Gaza since the latest war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, raising fears that Palestinian civilians will be unable to communicate with the outside world as the war escalates.

“We regret to announce a complete disruption of all communication and internet services with the Gaza Strip in light of the ongoing aggression,” the Palestine Telecommunications Company, known as Paltel, said in a Facebook post on Friday evening local time. Paltel provides internet and cell service in Gaza and the West Bank.

Military analyst says Israel could still delay ground invasion

David DesRoches, a professor at the US Department of Defense’s Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, said even though Israel has said it is expanding its operations, it still has reasons to delay a full-scale incursion into Gaza.

“I think that there’s a couple of factors in play. The first is it’s just extraordinarily difficult to fight in a densely populated area, and it takes a lot of effort, a lot of firepower, and you lose a lot of soldiers,” he told Al Jazeera.

“So I think that it’s in Israel’s interest to try to hold off and delay that as long as possible to try to isolate … Hamas elements by bombardment, by canalisation, before they move in.

“The second thing, I think, at a strategic level, is that Israel has to show the global community that it has exhausted all diplomatic options for a settlement. And then the final point is the fact that Hamas does hold hostages, and I think that that is a restraint on Israeli action.”

Israel aims to ‘keep world blinded on what’s happening’ in Gaza: Former UN special rapporteur

Michael Lynk, the former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, says that’s the goal of Israel’s decision to cut most methods of communication in the Gaza Strip.

“Cutting off all kinds of communication – including the very effective journalism being done by Al Jazeera inside Gaza – is going to [make] that much harder to be able to do if power is dwindling and there’s no internet or access to the outside world,” Lynk told Al Jazeera.

“Keeping the world blinded on what’s happening I’m sure is one purpose.”

Hamas official says no negotiations taking place with Israel

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan has said there are “no talks” currently taking place between the group and Israel over a potential ceasefire and prisoner exchange.

“There [were] talks and there [were] political efforts to achieve such an arrangement”, he told Al Jazeera, but there are “no talks” amid the intensified Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

Hamdan said Israeli forces are “moving towards the borders of Gaza from different points”.

“It’s clear that they know they have lost … the narrative issue, so they want to cut Gaza from the world in order to commit their crimes in deep silence,” he said.

“It’s clear they’ve started that [ground invasion], but they’re worried about the consequences, they are worried about what might happen on the ground and they are facing a very strong resistance.”

What aid groups have lost contact with Gaza staff?