The Israel Defense Forces have carried out what is believed to be the heaviest aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip since the current conflict began. After the attacks on Friday night, a spokesperson for the military announced that they are "expanding ground operations."

Red flares lit up the sky of Gaza, which had been plunged into darkness by a power outage.

The spokesperson told a media conference shortly after 8 p.m. Friday that the airstrikes targeted Hamas-built underground facilities.

The spokesperson said, "In addition to offensive operations we carried over the past few days, the IDF ground forces are expanding their ground operation this evening."

Ahead of the media conference, the spokesperson told foreign media outlets that Hamas' headquarters were hidden under the largest hospital in Gaza.

He said, "We have concrete evidence that hundreds of terrorists flooded into the hospital to hide there after the massacres of October 7."

But the Gaza hospital immediately denied the allegation in a news conference, insisting the claim was a fabrication.

The Gaza Health Ministry announced on Friday that the number of those killed in Gaza had surged to 7,326, including more than 3,000 children.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, announced on the same day that 10 experts, including a war surgery team and a weapons contamination specialist, had arrived in Gaza along with six trucks carrying medical materials and water purification supplies.

An ICRC official said, "This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but it's not enough. Safe, sustainable humanitarian access is urgently needed."

The official also said the "humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour."

Also on Friday, at least four people were wounded after a rocket allegedly fired from Gaza hit an apartment in Tel Aviv.

In a report on Friday, Al Jazeera quoted sources as saying that negotiations for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas are "progressing and at an advanced stage."