Israel launched its first ground operation Wednesday since ending the cease-fire with Hamas, with troops retaking part of a key Gaza corridor.
The Israel Defense Forces has taken the southern Netzarim corridor, with the troops set to expand the current buffer zone and begin “ground activities in the central and southern Gaza Strip,” military officials said.
The operation came as Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Palestinians to begin evacuating combat zones in Gaza as the IDF renewed its goal to wipe out Hamas.
“Gaza residents, this is a final warning,” Katz said in a statement. “The Air Force strikes against Hamas terrorists were just the first step.”
The ground incursion began days after Israeli forces conducted airstrikes on Gaza. IDFThe Israeli Air Force ended the cease-fire on Tuesday with a series of airstrikes that killed more than 400 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel accused Hamas of refusing to accept a US-backed truce deal to release more hostages in exchange for an extension of the first phase.
With Israel taking the Netzarim corridor, which divides Gaza in half, the IDF is likely looking to seclude Hamas’ main forces that have regrouped in the north.
Northern Gaza, however, also houses thousands of refugees who made their way back home during the short-lived cease-fire and stand to be displaced once again.
Katz warned Gaza residents to follow looming evacuation orders from the IDF, with Israel aiming to take out Mohammed Sinwar, the brother of slain Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar.
“The first Sinwar destroyed Gaza and the second Sinwar will completely destroy it,” Katz said, vowing that Hamas “will pay the full price.”
Subsequent airstrikes on Wednesday killed another 20 people, including a United Nation’s staffer who was working at the UN headquarters in Gaza City.
The executive director of the UN office for Project Services, Jorge Moreira da Silva, accused Israel of knowingly attacking a building that was serving as a shelter for refugees.
Israeli forces retook a critical corridor. IDF“Israel knew that this was a UN premises, that people were living, staying and working there,” Silva told reporters at a Brussels conference.
“It is a compound. It is a very well-known place. This was not an accident,” he added. “What’s happening in Gaza is unconscionable.”
Hamas also slammed the attacks, with the terror group accusing Israel of refusing to move forward on the second phase of the cease-fire deal that would have seen all the living hostages freed in exchange for the military’s withdrawal from Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing intense backlash for his decision to return to war.
About 40,000 Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square Tuesday night to protest the decision, with thousands more joining demonstrations in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Many relatives and former hostages fear that a return to war only puts the captives, who have been in Gaza for 530 days, at risk of being killed by Hamas, starvation, or by a stray Israeli bomb.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker and a vocal Netanyahu critic, called on demonstrators to camp outside the Israel Defense Forces’ Kirya headquarters to protest the return to war.
Relatives of hostages fear a return to hostilities further endangers their loved ones. IDF“Netanyahu didn’t open the gates of hell on Hamas,” she said. “He opened the gates of hell on our loved ones.”
The embattled Prime Minister also faces mass protests over his calls to fire Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar, who was investigating alleged ties between Netanyahu’s aides and Qatar.
Critics say both the plans to return to war and firing Bar are all politically motivated to reunite support from the fractured far-right and ensure he stays in power.
Out of the 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, at least 24 are believed to still be alive, including New Jersey-native Edan Alexander, 21.
With Post wires
