The Israeli military said yesterday its forces have resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, as a second day of air strikes killed at least 38 Palestinians, according to local health workers.
The renewed ground operations come a day after more than 400 Palestinians were killed in air strikes in one of the deadliest episodes since the beginning of the conflict in October 2023, shattering a ceasefire that has largely held since January.
The Israeli military said its operations have extended Israel’s 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.
Palestinian fighter group Hamas said the ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim Corridor were a “new and dangerous violation” of the two-month-old ceasefire agreement. In a statement, the group reaffirmed its commitment to the deal and called on mediators to “assume their responsibilities”.
The United Nations said an Israeli air strike had killed a foreign staffer and wounded five workers at the site of a UN headquarters in central Gaza City yesterday. But Israel denied this, saying it had hit a Hamas site, where it had detected preparations for firing into Israeli territory.
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.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a full investigation and condemned all attacks on UN personnel. In a statement he said the strike brought to at least 280 the number of UN colleagues killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
In Sofia, the foreign ministry said a Bulgarian working for the UN died yesterday in Gaza, citing preliminary information. It was not immediately clear if the Bulgarian was the foreign UN staffer killed in Gaza.
Israel, which has vowed to eradicate Hamas, said its latest onslaught was “just the beginning”.
In the latest violence, local health workers said an Israeli air strike killed four people and wounded 10 others in a house in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, where the army renewed evacuation orders to residents earlier yesterday.
In Beit Lahiya, a new Israeli air strike killed 14 people at a mourning tent, medics said.
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 that has reduced the enclave to rubble and forced most of its population to evacuate multiple times.
The Israeli campaign has killed more than 49,000 people in Gaza, Palestinian health authorities say, and caused a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, fuel and water.
Israel has accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas denies this and accuses Israel of indiscriminate bombings.
The war – the most devastating episode in decades of Israel-Palestinian conflict – was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which gunmen killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to resume bombardments has triggered protests in Israel as 59 hostages are still 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.
The renewed violence was condemned by Western nations, including France and Germany, as well as Qatar and Egypt, which had been acting as mediators in the ceasefire negotiations.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said yesterday she told Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar that the situation in Gaza was “unacceptable”.
Jordan’s King Abdullah called for the ceasefire to be restored and for aid flows to resume.
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