Internet and phone services collapsed in the Gaza Strip under intensified bombardment Friday night, largely cutting off its 2.3 million people from the outside world and each other, as Israel’s military said it was “expanding” its ground operations in the besieged territory as of tonight.

Frequent explosions from airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City after nightfall Friday, when the black-out in internet, cellular and landline services hit. The Red Crescent said it lost all contact with its operations room and medical teams. It said it feared people would no longer be able to contact ambulance services. Other aid groups said they were unable to reach staff on the ground.

There are “rapid negotiations” to reach a ceasefire agreement and a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel through a Qatari mediation, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV reported on Friday.

The Gulf state has been engaged in intense diplomacy behind the scenes and secured the release of four hostages held by the Palestinian militants following their October 7 attack on Israel.

Hezbollah’s top lawmaker Mohammed Raad announced Friday that “victory is coming and imminent,” as Hezbollah launched fresh attacks on Israeli military posts on Lebanon’s border.

Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Friday met with a delegation from the Iranian parliament.

According to Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri are capable of preventing the Gaza war from spreading to Lebanon.

In a meeting Friday with French Ambassador Hervé Magro, Geagea stressed that a parliamentary recommendation or a governmental decision could spare Lebanon the trouble of war.

The Israeli army announced Friday that its northern front with Lebanon and Syria did not witness any incidents overnight, following a relatively calm day on Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has arrived New York for international consultations over the war in Gaza.

Abdollahian cautioned against the war on Gaza spreading to other fronts in the region while speaking with reporters in New York, al-Mayadeen television said.

Caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim has stormed out of a meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in connection with a dispute over the looming vacuum in the army commander post.

The Israeli army said Thursday its forces had eliminated "five Hezbollah cells" that tried to open fire from south Lebanon yesterday.

Israel later fired two artillery shells on the Ghasouna area in Blida's eastern outskirts and on the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab with phosphorus bombs, as its troops machine-gunned the forests surrounding the Ruwaisat al-Alam site in the Kfarshouba Heights and Wadi Hounin, facing Markaba.

Douglas Macgregor --a retired U.S. Army colonel and a former senior adviser at the Pentagon -- has said that U.S. and Israeli special forced had recently gone into Gaza where they were “shot to pieces.”

“Some of our special ops forces and Israeli special ops forces went into Gaza to reconnoiter, to plan for where they might want to go to free hostages and make an impact and they were shot to pieces and took heavy losses, as I understand,” Macgregor said in an interview with U.S. far-right media personality Tucker Carlson.