Israel’s military announces start of ‘extensive’ new ground operations in Gaza
Health workers in Gaza have said that hundreds of people have been killed.
Israel launched “extensive” new ground operations in the Gaza Strip while airstrikes in a new offensive killed at least 103 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.
Airstrikes killed more than 48 people in and around the Palestinian territory’s southern city of Khan Younis, some hitting houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital, which said it struggled to count the dead because of the condition of the bodies.
Eighteen children and 13 women were among them, spokesperson Weam Fares said.
In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine members of a family, according to the Gaza health ministry’s emergency services.
Another strike on a residence in Jabaliya killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defence, which operates under the Hamas-run government.
In Gaza City, Um Mahmoud al-Aloul lay across the shrouded body of her daughter, Nour al-Aloul.
“You took my soul with you,” she cried. “I used to turn off my phone from how much you called.”
Israel’s military had no immediate comment, but its statement announcing the ground operations said that preliminary strikes over the past week killed dozens of militants and struck more than 670 targets.
Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas because the militant group operates from civilian areas.
Israel launched the offensive on Saturday with the aims of seizing territory, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza’s south and taking greater control of aid distribution.
An Israeli blockade on food, medicine and other supplies is now in its third month, with global food security experts warning of famine across the territory of more than two million people.
Israel has said it is pressuring Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire on Israel’s terms, one that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but would not necessarily end the war.
Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and a pathway to ending the war as part of any new ceasefire deal.
Israel had said it would wait until the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East before launching its offensive, saying it was giving a chance for efforts at a new deal. Mr Trump did not visit Israel on his trip, which ended on Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that his negotiating team in Qatar’s capital, Doha, was “working to realise every chance for a deal”, including one that would bring an end to fighting in exchange for the release of all remaining 58 hostages, Hamas’ exile from Gaza and the disarmament of the Palestinian territory.
Hamas has refused to leave Gaza or disarm.
Israel shattered a previous eight-week ceasefire in March, launching airstrikes that killed hundreds of people.
Days before that, Israel halted all imports into Gaza, deepening the humanitarian crisis.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
