The Israeli military announced Thursday an expansion of its month-old ground operation in northern Gaza to include part of Beit Lahiya, a town that has been heavily bombed since the earliest days of the war, where Israel says Hamas militants have regrouped.

Israel is expected to begin implementing “4-hour pauses" in areas of northern Gaza each day, beginning Thursday, the White House said.

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said Wednesday that the incoming administration of presidential election winner Donald Trump must “work seriously to stop the war” in the Gaza Strip. The declaration comes after a report emerged claiming Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wrap up the conflict by the time he gets inaugurated on Jan.

Like the Biden administration, which worked for a cease-fire in Gaza that never was, Trump wants the war there to end sooner rather than later. In a phone call ahead of the election, the president-elect told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wrap up major military operations in Gaza before Inauguration Day.

The House censured the only Palestinian American in Congress, Rashida Tlaib, over her remarks on Israel and Palestine.