Israel says it has split Gaza strip in two in drive to isolate Hamas' leadership

The Israeli military said its forces had split the Gaza Strip in two after a night of heavy airstrikes, a move that Israel said would make it more difficult for Hamas to control the enclave.

Israeli officials made the announcement after two Israeli columns surrounded Gaza City, which is densely populated and in the northern half of the Gaza Strip, effectively cutting it off from the south. Israeli officials have described the city as a Hamas stronghold.

"Essentially today there is a northern Gaza and a southern Gaza," Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military's chief spokesperson, said in a late-night briefing Sunday. Despite the claim, Israeli leaders have not talked about partitioning Gaza or maintaining control over the territory, which its forces vacated in 2005.

The extent of the fighting was unclear because of a communications blackout in Gaza, the third since the start of the war nearly one month ago.

Israel said it had struck 450 targets overnight in Gaza, and Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesperson, said Monday that Israeli infantry units were engaged in "close-quarters urban warfare." Hagari said Sunday night that Israeli troops were "carrying out a large attack on terrorist infrastructure both below and above ground."

More than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel's bombardment began almost a month ago, according to the Gaza Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. A Pentagon spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, said Monday that the United States assessed that the civilian toll was in "the thousands," but said he did not have a more precise estimate.

Addressing concerns that the war could spiral into a broader regional conflict, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Turkey on Monday in the final stop on a quick tour of the Middle East that included Tel Aviv, Israel, the West Bank and Baghdad.

Blinken has had less success in persuading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to agree to "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting.

During a meeting with Blinken in Tel Aviv on Friday, Netanyahu rebuffed the idea, insisting that Hamas first release the more than 200 hostages that it and other groups have been holding since Oct. 7, when Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.