Israel launches fresh offensive in Gaza after airstrikes kill over 100 people

Israel on Saturday announced the launch of a new major offensive in Gaza and said the strikes in the past few days that killed over 100 people were the “initial stages” of fresh attacks on the Palestinian territory.

The strikes were part of “the expansion of the battle in the Gaza Strip, to achieve all the war’s objectives, including the release of the abducted soldiers and the defeat of Hamas”, Israel’s army said on Telegram.

In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces said that they had “launched extensive attacks and mobilized forces to seize strategic areas in the Gaza Strip, as part of the opening moves of Operation Gideon’s Chariots and the expansion of the campaign in Gaza, to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza”.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes on Gaza in the past week have killed more than 100 people. Gaza’s health ministry on Friday said that 108 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a single day.

The launch of a fresh offensive comes days after US President Donald Trump finished his West Asia trip with no hope of a truce in the Palestinian region.

Trump’s visit to West Asia and subsequent high-level meetings with various stakeholders brought widespread hope of a breakthrough in ceasefire talks and the renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

While there were no substantial talks on a possible Israel-Hamas truce, Trump once again made territorial claims, stating that the US should “take” Gaza .

The US president made the comments during his visit to Qatar, where he said, “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good, make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone. I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu vowed earlier in the week to push ahead with a promised escalation of force in Israel’s war in the  Gaza Strip  to pursue his aim of destroying the Hamas militant group, which governs Gaza.