The Israeli occupation forces' Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has said that the occupation's ground invasion in the southern part of the Gaza Strip has already begun.

Halevi made the announcement while meeting with the Gaza Division's soldiers.

"It will be no less powerful than [the invasion in northern Gaza], it will have no less results," he emphasized, adding that Hamas commanders will meet Israeli occupation forces "everywhere".

On the contrary, at least eight Israeli soldiers were killed today in an ambush to the north of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. The invading infantry force was lured into a minefield set by al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing. The Resistance faction announced that one of its fighters was sent to the site of the ambush and eliminated occupation soldiers who survived the detonation, from point-blank range.

"Israel's" plots for Gazans clearer than ever

Paired with its aggression on the Gaza Strip, the occupation had launched a fierce media campaign, marketing the southern areas of the Strip as safe areas for civilians to take refuge in. In fact, the occupation distributed thousands of pamphlets via airdrops in northern areas, advising civilians to head south. 

Palestinians living in Gaza City, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun, among other areas and refugee camps, were given an alternative to getting bombed in schools, hospitals, and residential buildings, or so it seemed.

In this context, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced to southern areas of the Strip, in hopes of surviving the indiscriminate Israeli aggression. In light of the recent escalation and intensified bombing of southern areas, particularly Khan Younis, the Israeli agenda to ethnically cleanse and commit genocide against Palestinians appears more evident than ever.

The US' public and alleged requests to heed the occupation from taking such actions have obviously failed. On Friday, John Kirby, the White House National Security Council director, told Bloomberg TV that the US will not "support southern operation unless or until [the Israelis] have factored in all those additional civilians – actually, all civilians, but noting that there are now hundreds of thousands more civilians."

The occupation has not made such efforts, of factoring in civilians, and instead has chosen to escalate its aggression against Palestinians, marking another failure of US foreign policy, which had prided itself on allegedly defending freedoms and human rights around the world.

Read more: 'Israel' massacres hundreds in residential areas across Gaza Strip