Israel launches first ground attack in Gaza since ceasefire collapse

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had launched “targeted ground activities” in Gaza.

It said it had partially recaptured a key area in the territory.

This comes a day after launching an aerial bombardment of the Strip that shattered the two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas.

Media reports reveal that the operation followed Israel’s renewed bombardment of Gaza the day before, shattering the fragile ceasefire with Hamas.

Israel accused Hamas of “repeatedly” refusing to release hostages and rejecting offers from mediators.

Hamas, in turn, blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of unilaterally upending the truce and putting hostages “at risk of an unknown fate.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday that its troops “began targeted ground activities in the central and southern Gaza Strip.

This they said was in order to expand the security zone and to create a partial buffer between northern and southern Gaza.

“As part of the ground activities, the troops expanded their control further to the center of the Netzarim Corridor,” the military said.

Hamas called the latest offensive a “new and dangerous breach” of the ceasefire agreement.

The militant group, in a statement Wednesday, said it remained committed to the ceasefire agreement it signed with Israel back in January.
Dozens of people were killed in strikes across Gaza on Wednesday, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal.

In Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, 24 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a funeral home, Basal said.

Another 21 people, including six children, were killed in a strike on the Gaza City neighborhood of Al-Sabra, according to Basal.

Under January’s ceasefire deal, Israel had withdrawn from the Netzarim Corridor.

This region is a key strip of land that splits Gaza in half, dividing the central Gaza City and northern Gaza from the southern parts of the Strip that borders Egypt.

Although Israel withdrew from the corridor, foreign military contractors have continued to man checkpoints between northern and southern Gaza.

After the truce became effective, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians filed through the corridor by foot.

Some filed car and in some cases by donkeys, with many of them returning to homes that had been destroyed after 15 months of Israeli bombardment.

Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday killed more than 400 people in Gaza, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry, making it one of the war’s deadliest days.

Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Wednesday that the residents of Gaza will “pay the full price” if Israeli hostages are not returned.

It said same will apply if Hamas remains able to govern in the Strip.

An Israeli official said on Tuesday that the airstrikes in Gaza were the first phase in a series of escalatory military actions.

The actions are aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing more hostages, marking a return to Netanyahu’s view that military pressure is the most effective way to secure the release of hostages.

So far, the Israeli military has brought just eight living hostages back to Israel, out of 251 taken by Hamas and its allies on October 7, 2023.

The vast majority have been released as part of ceasefire deals in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

On Wednesday, the United Nations said one of their international aid workers was killed by an “explosive ordnance” at the UN guesthouse in central Gaza, and five others were injured.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza blamed the attack on the Israeli military, which the IDF denied.

The IDF said it had not conducted an airstrike in the vicinity of the guesthouse.

Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), told reporters at a press conference in Brussels that the attack happened at a UN guesthouse in Deir al-Balah that was frequently used by UN staff.

The location was known to the IDF and in an isolated area with no other buildings nearby, he said.

Da Silva said the guesthouse had come under attack multiple times this week.

“Two days ago there was a near miss to this premises, and yesterday the premises was hit, and today there was another hit, unfortunately with these casualties,” he said.

“It cannot be categorized as an accident,” he added, stressing that “attacks on humanitarian premises are a breach of international law.”

A spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry said late Wednesday that a Bulgarian citizen working for the UN had died in Gaza.

But it was not immediately clear if the Bulgarian was the same person mentioned in the UN’s statement.

Trevor Ball, a former US Army senior explosive ordnance disposal team member who reviewed the footage, said weapon fragments from the scene are consistent with the M339, an Israeli tank projectile.

Damage from the building is also consistent with a tank round, Ball said, and points to a pretty direct impact.

Nic Jenzen-Jones, director at Armament Research Services (ARES) who also analyzed the footage, said the “remnants appear to be from an Israeli 120 mm tank projectile, most likely the M339 multi-purpose model.”

Meanwhile, the renewed war drew thousands of protesters to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem.

Critics of Netanyahu’s government accuse the prime minister of using the war to shore up his shaky coalition.

Later on Wednesday, police clashed with demonstrators and arrested 12 people at an anti-Netanyahu rally in Jerusalem, they said in a statement.

People were protesting the prime minister’s plan to fire the chief of the Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar.

Video from the scene shows a row of police officers face-to-face with a group of demonstrators.

Police officers are seen pushing the protesters as they try to make them walk in a certain direction.

Another image from the scene shows a police officer grabbing an elderly protester by the torso.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Israel Police said that they had deployed crowd-control measures after demonstrators “severely disrupted public order.

The measures included setting fires in the middle of the roadway, creating a significant risk to fellow protesters.

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