Key Points
- Israeli strikes killed at least 91 Palestinians on Thursday.
- Israel has launched a ground invasion along the Netzarim corridor.
- Hamas says its fighters have launched rockets into Israel.
At least 91 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday after Israel resumed bombing and ground operations, the enclave’s health ministry said, effectively ditching a two-month-old ceasefire.
After two months of relative calm, Palestinians in Gaza were again fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign against the militant group Hamas.
Tuesday’s first day of resumed airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old conflict, with scant let-up since then.
Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on residential neighbourhoods, ordering people out of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns in the north, the Shejaia district in Gaza City and towns on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis in the south.
Late on Thursday, Israel’s military said it had begun ground operations in the Shaboura district of Gaza’s southernmost city Rafah, which abuts the Egyptian border.
“War is back, displacement and death are back, will we survive this round?” said Samed Sami, 29, who fled Shejaia to put up a tent for his family in a camp on open ground.
A day after sending tanks into central Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had also begun conducting ground operations in the north of the densely populated enclave, along the coastal route in Beit Lahiya.
Hamas, which had not retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its fighters fired rockets into Israel.
The bodies of Palestinians, who were killed by Israeli strikes in central Gaza, are at Europe Hospital morgue in Khan Yunis, Gaza, where grieving relatives of the deceased perform funeral prayers. Source: Anadolu / Anadolu / Anadolu via Getty Images
The Israeli military said sirens sounded in the centre of the country after projectiles were launched from Gaza.
With talks having failed to bridge differences over terms to extend the ceasefire, the military resumed its air assaults on Gaza with a massive bombing campaign on Tuesday before sending soldiers in the day after.
It said on Thursday that its forces had been engaged for the past 24 hours in what it described as an operation to expand a buffer zone separating the northern and southern halves of Gaza, known as the Netzarim corridor.
Hamas said the Israeli ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim corridor were a “new and dangerous violation” of the ceasefire agreement.
In a statement, it reaffirmed its commitment to the deal and called on mediators to “assume their responsibilities”.
The first phase of the ceasefire ended at the start of March.
Hamas wants to follow the original deal and move to an agreed second phase, under which Israel would be required to negotiate an end to the war and withdrawal of its troops from Gaza, and Israeli hostages still held there would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has offered only a temporary extension of the truce, cut off all supplies to Gaza and said it was restarting its military campaign to force Hamas to free remaining hostages.
