The Israeli military says it is preparing for an "integrated and coordinated attack from the air, sea and land" on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
In a statement issued on Saturday evening, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said: "Battalions and soldiers are deployed all over the country and are prepared to increase readiness for the next stages of the war — with an emphasis on a significant ground operation."
It did not specify exactly when this would begin, however, amid speculation that a larger-scale attack could be imminent.
The IDF has called up over 300,000 reservists in an unprecedented mobilization since Hamas militants launched thousands of rockets toward Israel, breached border defenses and rampaged across communities of southern Israel a week ago.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Israel, and more than 2,200 people have been killed so far in Israel's retaliatory bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip.
Israel has ordered Palestinian civilians to evacuate the northern part of the Gaza, an order that has been condemned as impractical by much of the international community.
Earlier on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted video footage and photographs on social media of him meeting with IDF soldiers on the front line and asking them if they were ready for the next phase of the deployment, to which they were shown nodding.
"We are all ready," he wrote as he shared the video, but again with no details on where or when.
