Israel expands ground offensive ‘in all of Gaza Strip’, dozens of Palestinians killed

The Israeli military said that IDF was confronting Hamas fighters across the Gaza Strip. It indicated its planned ground offensive in the enclave’s refugee-crowded south had begun as Israeli bombing killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians. The move came after the seven-day impasse in the conflict, during which an exchange of hostages and prisoners took place between Israeli forces and Hamas militants. The war has already killed thousands of Palestinians and displaced over three-fourths of the territory’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians, who are running out of safe places to go. The Israeli military on Monday renewed its calls for mass evacuations from the southern town of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge in recent weeks, as it widened its ground offensive and bombarded targets across the Gaza Strip. The latest violence took place despite calls from the United States — Israel’s closest ally — for Israel to limit harm to Palestinian civilians in the new phase of its offensive, focused on the south. Already under mounting pressure from its top ally, the United States, Israel appears to be racing to strike a death blow against Hamas — if that’s even possible, given the group’s deep roots in Palestinian society — before another cease-fire. But the mounting toll of the fighting, which Palestinian health officials say has killed several hundred civilians since the truce ended on Friday, further increases pressure to return to the negotiating table. It could also render even larger parts of the isolated territory uninhabitable. The ground offensive has transformed much of the north, including large parts of Gaza City, into a rubble-filled wasteland. Hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge in the south, which could meet the same fate, and both Israel and neighboring Egypt have refused to accept any refugees. Residents said they heard airstrikes and explosions in and around Khan Younis overnight and into Monday after the military dropped leaflets warning people to relocate further south toward the border with Egypt. In an Arabic language post on social media early Monday, the military again ordered the evacuation of nearly two dozen neighborhoods in and around Khan Younis. Halima Abdel-Rahman, a widow and mother of four, said she’s stopped heeding such orders. She fled her home in October to an area outside Khan Younis, where she stays with relatives. “The (Israeli) occupation tells you to go to this area, then they bomb it,” she said by phone on Sunday. “The reality is that no place is safe in Gaza. They kill people in the north. They kill people in the south.” With inputs from agencies.