Israeli troops have entered the outskirts of Gaza City, Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Thursday evening. “We are in the middle of the battle. We made impressive progress and passed the outskirts of Gaza City. We are moving forward,” the prime minister said, according to Sky News.

In a post on X, the prime minister said: “Nothing will stop us. We will go forward. We will go forward and win, and we will do it with the help of God and with the help of our heroic soldiers.”

The urban environment is seen as a much greater challenge for the military than the countryside they have traveled through so far.

Trap mines are believed to be planted all along the route, while Hamas will have lookouts and anti-tank positions on alert, experts said earlier.

And the Israeli army will have to contend with a vast network of underground tunnels that Hamas has already used to launch surprise attacks on soldiers.

Israel has ordered the evacuation south of more than a million people from the north of the territory where Gaza City is located, ahead of a ground offensive.

But in hospitals alone, 117,000 civilians remained sheltered along with patients and doctors, according to the UN humanitarian office, OCHA.