Israeli ground forces operated within the northern Gaza Strip early Thursday, attacking multiple targets before withdrawing, the military said in a statement on what Israel's Army Radio described as the biggest incursion of the current conflict.

Video of the overnight action issued by the military showed armored vehicles proceeding through a sandy border zone. A bulldozer is seen leveling part of a raised bank, tanks fire shells, and explosions are seen near or amid a row of damaged buildings.

Black smoke billowed into the sky after a blast in the grainy night-vision footage the military released hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared preparations for a ground war were underway.

The military statement posted online said the incursion was carried out "in preparation for the next stages of combat," a possible reference to the large-scale invasion that Israeli leaders have threatened as part of the war to destroy Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

"The soldiers have since exited the area and returned to Israeli territory," the military statement added.

The black-and-white video showed a column of armored vehicles moving near Gaza's border fence. Other footage appeared to show an airstrike and buildings being struck with munitions, sending debris flying high.

Just hours earlier, Netanyahu had delivered a nationally televised address to Israelis, telling them "we are in the midst of a campaign for our existence," following the Oct. 7 incursion by Palestinian group Hamas.

Israel retaliated with relentless strikes that Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry said has killed more than 7,000, mainly civilians – a toll expected to rise substantially if Israeli troops massed near Gaza move in.

That scenario has further heightened international alarm as shock is growing about the scale of human suffering inside the besieged territory where Israel has cut off most water, food, fuel and other basic supplies.

"Where is humanity?"

In southern Gaza, a bereaved Palestinian, Umm Omar al-Khaldi, recounted to Agence France-Presse (AFP) how she witnessed her neighbors being killed in an Israeli strike that reduced the house to rubble, with many feared buried beneath.

"We saw them getting bombarded – the children got bombarded while their mother was hugging them," the woman said, desperately pleading for help from the outside world.

"Where are the Arabs, where is humanity?" she said. "Have mercy on us, have mercy on us."

The war's surging death toll is by far the highest since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the small coastal territory in 2005 – a period that has seen four previous Gaza wars.

Entire neighborhoods have been razed, surgeons are operating without anesthetic on some of the wounded, and ice-cream trucks have become makeshift morgues.

In chaotic scenes, volunteer emergency crew and neighbors have clawed, sometimes with their bare hands, through broken concrete and sand to pull out civilian casualties.

All too often they recover only their corpses, which have piled up, wrapped in blood-stained white shrouds.

U.S. President Joe Biden, a strong supporter of Israel, has joined the calls for it to "protect innocent civilians" and to follow the "laws of war" as it pursues Hamas targets.

Leaders of the 27-member European Union were Thursday debating whether to call for a "humanitarian pause" in the war to deliver desperately needed aid.

French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Cairo on Wednesday, warned that "a massive intervention that would put civilian lives at risk would be an error."

And Jordan's King Abdullah II said anger at the suffering could "lead to an explosion" in the Middle East.

'Raining down hellfire'

Netanyahu – amid the growing calls to temper the ferocious bombing campaign – said Israel had been "raining down hellfire on Hamas" and killing "thousands of terrorists."

He said his war cabinet and the military would determine the timing of a "ground offensive" with the goal to "eliminate Hamas" and "bring our captives home."

But he stressed that "I will not detail when, how or how many" forces would take part.

Netanyahu also acknowledged for the first time that he would have to explain the security lapses exposed on Oct. 7.

"The fault will be examined and everyone will have to give answers, including me," he said. "But all this will happen later."

Biden, also contemplating the future, stressed that "when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next."

He reiterated that Washington supports a two-state solution with independent Israeli and Palestinian states.

"It means a concentrated effort for all the parties – Israelis, Palestinians, regional partners, global leaders – to put us on a path toward peace," said the U.S. president.