Gaza offensive expanding to capture ‘large areas’, says Israeli defence minister
Airstrikes continued on Gaza on Wednesday morning after the Israeli defense minister announced that Israel intended to expand its war. In a statement, Israel Katz said the offensive was “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.”
The move has been condemned by the Hostages Families Forum, who said it appeared that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were making the return of 59 hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas “a secondary task” that had been “pushed to the bottom of the priority list.”
In a post to social media, Katz said:
I wish success to the IDF soldiers who are fighting bravely and powerfully in Gaza for the return of the kidnapped and the defeat of Hamas. The goal of Operation “Strength and Sword” is first and foremost to increase pressure for the release of all the hostages in the face of Hamas’ refusal.
Expanding the operation this morning will increase the pressure on the Hamas murderers and also on the population in Gaza and advance the achievement of the sacred and important goal for all of us. I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to remove Hamas and return all the hostages. This is the only way to end the war.
The IDF has deployed an additional division to the area, and issued sweeping evacuation orders to the civilian population in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources in Gaza have told Al Jazeera that 21 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since dawn on Wednesday morning. The network has been banned from operating inside Israel.
Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that extensive Israeli security operations have continued inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with one man shot dead by Israeli forces in Nablus, and Palestinians being detained by Israel’s forces in Hebron, Tulkarm and Nour Shams.
Key events
The death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza in the last few hours has been put at 21 by medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera. At least 12 Palestinians were killed by a strike on a house in Khan Younis. Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wire.
The father of one of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, Alon Ohel, has spoken to Hebrew media outlet Ynet, saying that he is “worried” by the announcement that Israel intends to expand its military operation in Gaza again and “capture large areas.”
Kobi Ohel said “I woke up to another day that I am worried and afraid for Alon’s fate. From what we know and have seen, fighting did not bring the kidnapped people home, and the way to return them is through a deal. Alon needs to be returned and saved.”
Pregnant woman among Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Khan Younis – reports
Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip have killed 17 people, Associated Press reports hospital officials have said.
The bodies of 12 people killed in an overnight airstrike were brought to Nasser hospital, officials said Wednesday, and the victims included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children. Three men from the same family were killed, as were the owners of the house that was bombed, officials said.
Gaza offensive expanding to capture ‘large areas’, says Israeli defence minister
Airstrikes continued on Gaza on Wednesday morning after the Israeli defense minister announced that Israel intended to expand its war. In a statement, Israel Katz said the offensive was “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.”
The move has been condemned by the Hostages Families Forum, who said it appeared that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were making the return of 59 hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas “a secondary task” that had been “pushed to the bottom of the priority list.”
In a post to social media, Katz said:
I wish success to the IDF soldiers who are fighting bravely and powerfully in Gaza for the return of the kidnapped and the defeat of Hamas. The goal of Operation “Strength and Sword” is first and foremost to increase pressure for the release of all the hostages in the face of Hamas’ refusal.
Expanding the operation this morning will increase the pressure on the Hamas murderers and also on the population in Gaza and advance the achievement of the sacred and important goal for all of us. I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to remove Hamas and return all the hostages. This is the only way to end the war.
The IDF has deployed an additional division to the area, and issued sweeping evacuation orders to the civilian population in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources in Gaza have told Al Jazeera that 21 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since dawn on Wednesday morning. The network has been banned from operating inside Israel.
Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that extensive Israeli security operations have continued inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with one man shot dead by Israeli forces in Nablus, and Palestinians being detained by Israel’s forces in Hebron, Tulkarm and Nour Shams.
Al Jazeera reports there have been two Israeli airstrikes on the south of Gaza City. There is no information on casualties at present, however medical sources have told the news network that 21 Palestinians have been killed since dawn by Israeli attacks.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports continued activity by Israeli security forces inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank. On Wednesday morning the agency reported a 33-year-old man had been shot and killed by Israel’s forces in Nablus. It reported that another Palestinian was injured in Nablus when they were run over by an Israeli military vehicle.
In Hebron, seven Palestinians are reported to have been detained by Israeli forces, and there are reports of further detentions in Tulkarm and the Nour Shams camp.
The Hostages Families Forum has reacted strongly to defense minister Israel Katz’s announcement that Israel is to expand its war further into Gaza.
In a statement, the group which represents friends and family of those being held captive in the Palestinian territory, said:
Did you decide that we are sacrificing hostages for capturing land? Instead of getting the hostages out in a deal and ending the war, Israel’s government is sending more soldiers to Gaza to fight in the same places that they already fought over and over again.
Hamas is believed to still be holding 59 hostages who were seized from Israel and abducted on 7 October, not all of whom are thought to still be alive.
The statement said that the Hostages Families Forum believed the recovery of the hostages had become “a secondary task” and had been “pushed to the bottom of the priority list.”
The families demanded the government explain “how this operation serves the goal of returning the hostages, and how you intend to avoid endangering them.”
Israel’s announcement that the army will seize “large areas” of the Palestinian territory comes after a warning last week that the military would soon “operate with full force” in additional parts of Hamas-run Gaza.
Israel restarted intense bombing of Gaza on 18 March and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s 7 October, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 50,357 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
As of 23 March, more than 140,000 people had been displaced again since the end of the ceasefire, according to the latest UN estimate — and tens of thousands more are estimated to have fled under evacuation orders over the past week.
Every time families have moved during the war, they have had to leave behind belongings and start nearly from scratch, finding food, water and shelter. Now, with no fuel entering, transportation is even more difficult, so many are fleeing with almost nothing.
As Israel orders wide new evacuations across the Gaza Strip, Palestinians say they are crushed by exhaustion and hopelessness at the prospect of fleeing once again, the AP reports.
Many are packing a few belongings and trudging off in search of new shelters. Some say they just can’t bear to move.
When ordered out of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, Ihab Suliman and his family could only grab some food and blankets before making their way south 19 March. It was their eighth time fleeing over the past 18 months of war.
“There is no longer any taste to life,” said Suliman, a former university professor. “Life and death have become one and the same for us.”
Suliman is among the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled temporary shelters since Israel shattered a 2-month-old ceasefire on 18 March with renewed bombardment and ground assaults.
Israel’s defence minister did not make clear how much land Israel intends to seize.
But the country has already set up a significant buffer zone within Gaza, expanding an area that existed around the edges of the enclave before the war, and adding a large security area in the so-called Netzarim corridor through the middle of Gaza.
At the same time, Israeli leaders have said they plan to facilitate voluntary departure of Palestinians from the enclave, after US President Donald Trump called for it to be permanently evacuated and redeveloped as a coastal resort under US control, the so-called “Riveria of the Middle East”.
A video of that bizarre plan to refresh your memory.
A reminder the creator of that AI generated video depicting the Gaza Strip as a Dubai-style paradise said it was intended as a political satire of Trump’s “megalomaniac idea”.
The move in Gaza comes after the US said it was adding an extra aircraft carrier to its Middle East deployment.
The Carl Vinson will join the Harry S. Truman in the Middle East “to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Tuesday.
US forces have struck Yemen’s Houthi rebels with near-daily air strikes in a campaign aimed at ending the threat they pose to civilian shipping and military vessels in the region.
“To complement the CENTCOM maritime posture, the secretary also ordered the deployment of additional squadrons and other air assets that will further reinforce our defensive air-support capabilities,” Parnell said, referring to the US military command responsible for the region.
The Houthis began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the start of the Gaza war in 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.
Opening summary
Welcome to live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the Middle East crisis.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has announced an expansion of the military operation in Gaza.
He said on Wednesday morning that large areas of the territory would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel.
He said in a statement there would be a large-scale evacuation of the population from fighting areas and called on Palestinians there to eliminate Hamas and return Israeli hostages, saying this was the only way to end the war.
We will bring you more details as soon as we can.
