At least 73 people were killed during Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority, as Israel launched a major expansion of military operations.
A recent ceasefire has become a distant memory for Palestinians in the coastal enclave after Israel announced plans to establish another security corridor dividing the strip and the army said it had encircled part of the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
The United Nations said in a statement that more than 100,000 people in the southern Gaza Strip have fled Israeli attacks over the past two days.
The news came as another large demonstration against Hamas and the Gaza war took place in the northern Gaza Strip.
Hundreds of people, including women and children, called on the Palestinian Islamist organization to withdraw, eyewitnesses told dpa.
The protest, held among the ruins of the city of Beit Lahia, also opposed US plans to relocate residents as part of a long-lasting cessation of hostilities.
Instead, the war, which began after an unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel in October 2023, took a significant turn as a breakdown of trust between the Israelis and Hamas over hostage releases and other sticking points was laid bare.
“The only thing that can stop our further advance is the release of our hostages,” Israeli Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said in a statement during a troop visit to Rafah.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported deadly attacks in Khan Younis in the south and in Al-Sawaida in the central Gaza Strip.
Additionally, reports said there were many fatalities in Jabalia in the north of the territory when an Israeli airstrike hit a clinic operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
At least 19 out of the 73 were killed here. The figures do not distinguish between civilians or combatants and cannot be independently verified.
Morag corridor in Israel’s sights
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had earlier announced the new raids into the Gaza Strip which aim to “crush and cleanse the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”
The defence minister called on residents of the coastal strip “to act now to remove Hamas and return all the hostages. This is the only way to end the war.”
He said the operation will “seize large areas that will be added to Israel’s security zones.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later added more details in a video address.
“We are conquering the Morag corridor,” he said.
Morag was once an Israeli settlement in the south of the Palestinian territory. According to Israeli media, the route would separate the city of Rafah from the city of Khan Younis.
Netanyahu said the division of the Gaza Strip increases the pressure on Hamas until the Palestinian Islamist group releases the remaining hostages.
The Israeli military already controls a large part of the so-called Netzarim Corridor, a strategically important route that divides the coastal strip into a northern and a southern half.
“Tonight we have shifted up a gear in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli armed forces are capturing areas, attacking terrorists,” Netanyahu said.
Following months of conflict, a ceasefire took effect in Gaza on January 19, prompting many displaced residents to return home.
But in mid-March, Israel resumed its massive air attacks after no agreement was reached with Hamas on the conditions for an extension of the ceasefire. Since then, Israel also launched ground operations.
According to the Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza, more than 50,100 people have been killed so far, a third of them children and young people.
International organizations such as the UN consider the figures to be largely credible.
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