Israel expanding military operation to capture ‘large areas’ of Gaza Strip

Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas” of the Palestinian territory, the country’s defence minister said on Wednesday.

Israel Katz said in a written statement that Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip is “expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel”.

He called on Gaza residents to “expel Hamas and return all hostages”.

The militant group still holds 59 captives, of whom 24 are believed to still be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Mr Katz did not specify which areas of Gaza would be seized in the expanded operation, which includes the “extensive evacuation” of the population from fighting areas.

“This is the only way to end the war,” Mr Katz said.The Hostage Families Forum, which represents most captives’ families, said that it was “horrified to wake up this morning to the Defence Minister’s announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza.”

The group said the Israeli government “has an obligation to free all 59 hostages from Hamas captivity — to pursue every possible channel to advance a deal for their release”.

They stressed that every passing day puts their loved ones’ lives at greater risk.

“Their lives hang in the balance as more and more disturbing details continue to emerge about the horrific conditions they’re being held in — chained, abused, and in desperate need of medical attention,” said the forum, which called on the Trump administration and other mediators to continue pressuring Hamas to release the hostages.

“Our highest priority must be an immediate deal to bring ALL hostages back home — the living for rehabilitation and those killed for proper burial — and end this war,” the group said.

Overnight, Israel continued to target the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes killing 17 people in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Another 15 people were killed in a strike in the north of the strip Wednesday, according to hospital officials.

Officials at the Nasser Hospital said the bodies of 12 people killed in an overnight airstrike that were brought to the hospital included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children.

Officials at the Gaza European Hospital said they received five bodies of people killed in two separate airstrikes.

Later on Wednesday, officials at the Indonesian Hospital said an Israeli strike on a building of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip killed 15 people, including nine children and two women.

Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, confirmed that an UNRWA building had been hit, but did not have any further details on casualties or what the building was being used as.

The Palestinian Civil Defence said the building had been an UNRWA clinic that was now being used to house displaced people. It said the attack hit two rooms in the building, and that it evacuated the bodies of seven of those killed as well as 12 people who were wounded.

The Israeli military said it struck Hamas members in the area, adding that they were hiding inside “a command and control centre that was being used for co-ordinating” armed activity and served as a central meeting point for the Palestinian group.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds killed in strikes since a ceasefire ended about two weeks ago, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say whether those killed are civilians or combatants.

Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.