Israel has said that its forces have pushed deep into Gaza City, where residents said tanks were positioned on the outskirts for a potential storming of Gaza’s urban heartland, Reuters reports.

“For the first time in decades, IDF is fighting in the heart of Gaza City. At the heart of terrorism,” Major General Yaron Finkelman, commanding officer of the Southern Command of the Israeli Defence Forces, told reporters near the Gaza border.

“Every day and every hour the forces are killing fighters, exposing tunnels and destroying weapons, and continuing onward to enemy centres.”

There was no indication on the ground that Israeli forces had thrust en masse further into the city, but a spokesperson for the military, Richard Hecht, suggested that the encircling troops could be making raids inside.

Asked whether such raids had taken place, he said: “I’m not going to talk about how we are operationally acting from within our encirclement around Gaza City. You are in the right direction, that’s all I can say.”