Israel launches fresh military operation to seize ‘large areas' of Gaza
Israel has launched a major expansion of its military operation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, saying that its army would seize 'large areas' of the Palestinian territory.
In a statement early on Wednesday morning, Israel Katz, the country's defence minister, said that Israel would expand its presence in Gaza to 'destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure'.
The operation would 'seize large areas that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones', he said, without explaining how much territory Israel would take.
The announcement comes after he warned last week that the military would soon 'operate with full force' in additional parts of Gaza.
Israel restarted intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a ceasefire in the war with Hamas that had lasted almost two months.
The war was sparked by Hamas's attacks on Israel on Oct 7 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 50,000 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
A report by the Henry Jackson Society in December said that the number of civilians killed in the Gaza conflict had probably been inflated by Hamas to portray Israel as deliberately targeting innocent people.
Salo Aizenberg, from the US-based non-profit organisation Honest Reporting, said that Hamas's March 2025 casualty update had removed thousands of people it previously listed as having been killed last year.
The Israel Defense Forces said that it has killed 20,000 Hamas combatants during the fighting and does all it can to mitigate civilian casualties.
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