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Israel launches first ground offensive since Gaza ceasefire collapse, partially recapturing key area

Israeli tanks were seen positioned near the Israel-Gaza border on Tuesday. Amir Cohen/Reuters

Israeli tanks were seen positioned near the Israel-Gaza border on Tuesday. Amir Cohen/Reuters

CNN — The Israeli military said Wednesday that it had launched “targeted ground activities” in Gaza, partially recapturing a key area in the territory, a day after launching an aerial bombardment of the Strip that shattered the two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas.

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 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.

Under January’s ceasefire deal, Israel had withdrawn from the Netzarim Corridor, a key strip of land that splits Gaza in half, dividing the central Gaza City and northern Gaza from the southern parts of the Strip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, 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.

UN worker killed

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, saying 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.

Video filmed by CNN at the scene showed a hole on the side of the building.

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.”

CNN asked the IDF whether they were investigating the possibility that the strike could have been caused by Israeli tank fire. A spokesperson said: “We have nothing to add at the moment. If new information arises, we will publish it.”

Fresh protest

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.

The Israeli military statement came after Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Wednesday that the residents of Gaza will “pay the full price” if Israeli hostages are not returned and Hamas remains able to govern in the Strip.

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

CNN’s Mohammad Al Sawalhi, Kareem Khadder, Abeer Salman, Tamar Michaelis, Jo Shelley and Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed reporting.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Author: Mick Krever, Lauren Izso, Christian Edwards, Catherine Nicholls and Max Saltman, CNN

Source: CNN:::

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