The Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces have resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, as a second day of airstrikes killed at least 20 Palestinians, according to local health workers.
Israel’s renewed ground operations come a day after more than 400 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in one of the deadliest episodes since the beginning of the conflict, shattering a ceasefire that has mostly held since January.
The Israeli military said its operations have extended its control over the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, and were a “focused” manoeuvre aimed at creating a partial buffer zone between the north and the south of the enclave.
The move comes as the United Nations said a foreign staffer was killed and five other workers were wounded in an Israeli airstrike Wednesday on the site of a UN headquarters in central Gaza City.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director of the UN office for Project Services, said: “Israel knew that this was a UN premises, that people were living, staying and working there, it is a compound. It is a very well-known place.”
An explosive device was dropped or fired on the premises, he told a news conference in Brussels.
“This was not an accident,” he said. “What’s happening in Gaza is unconscionable.”
Dr. Raed Hussein, director of emergency and ambulance services at Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, called for protection of international organizations including the UN.
“[The Israeli army] bombed a residential area. The [victims] are foreigners who entered the Gaza Strip,” Hussein told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Wednesday.
The Israeli military denied it had struck the UN compound in Deir el-Balah. It said it had hit a Hamas site in northern Gaza where it had detected preparations for firing into Israeli territory but provided no evidence.
Israel warned the onslaught was “just the beginning.”
Residents forced to evacuate homes in north, south
On Wednesday, the Israeli army dropped leaflets in the northern and southern Gaza Strip, ordering residents to evacuate their homes, warning they were in “dangerous combat zones.”
Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a video statement warning Gaza residents that evacuation from combat zones would begin shortly.
He said airstrikes were “only the first step” and if the hostages were not released, “Israel will act with force you have not yet seen.”
Warning: This video contains graphic images | Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military campaign will continue in Gaza with increasing intensity. The first wave of bombardments from Israel since the collapse of the ceasefire killed at least 400 people and displaced thousands from their homes, Gaza health officials say.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to resume bombardments has triggered protests in Israel as 59 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with 24 of them believed to be still alive.
A coalition of hostage families and protesters against Netanyahu’s moves against the judiciary and other parts of the security establishment has regrouped and accuses the prime minister of using the war for political ends.
Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he had ordered strikes because Hamas had rejected proposals to secure an extension of the ceasefire until April.
Hamas, which still holds 59 of about 250 hostages Israel says the group seized in its October 7, 2023, cross-border attack, accused Israel of jeopardizing efforts by mediators to negotiate a permanent deal to end the fighting.
Arab plan in jeopardy
Arab nations drew up a plan for peace and reconstruction in Gaza after a proposal from U.S. President Donald Trump to resettle Palestinians and turn it into the “Riviera” of the Middle East triggered outrage in the region. However, the plan has not gained traction.
Israel and Western powers do not want the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to play any role in the enclave when the war is over. Israel has vowed to crush Hamas, but the Palestinian militant group remains the dominant force in Gaza.
In Wednesday’s violence, three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, while another airstrike left two men dead and wounded six others in Beit Hanoun town in the north, the Gaza health officials said.
Palestinian medics said Israeli tank shelling on the Salahdeen road killed one Palestinian and wounded others, while an Israeli airstrike killed three people in a house in Beit Lahiya town north of the enclave.
Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza overnight, killing more than 400 people, Palestinian health authorities say, threatening the complete collapse of the two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Israeli naval vessels also attacked several boats, which Israel said intended to carry out “terrorist” acts by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups. Palestinians said an Israeli drone fired at several fishing boats onshore of Gaza City, setting several of them ablaze.
Hamas officials said they remained keen on concluding the three-phase ceasefire deal as signed.
Israel and Hamas accuse each other of breaching the truce, which had offered a respite for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents after 17 months of war, which has reduced the enclave to rubble and displaced the majority of its population multiple times.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, shattering Israel’s reputation as invincible in a hostile region.
The subsequent Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed more than 49,000 people, say Palestinian health authorities, and caused a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, fuel and water.
