Things ARE going sideways in GAZA Again …..
Trump?
Middle East countries?
Israeli forces have launched a “limited ground operation” to retake the Netzarim corridor, a newly widened road protected by fortified bunkers that divides Gaza and is seen as essential to controlling the devastated Palestinian territory.
The move is a significant escalation of Israel’s new offensive in Gaza and came less than 36 hours after a massive wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400, including 183 children and 94 women, the health ministry there said.
Zaher al-Waheidi, the head of the ministry’s records department, described those attacks as the deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the war.
More Israeli strikes on Wednesday killed about 20, bringing the death toll to 436 in 48 hours, a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence service said….
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A series of Israeli evacuation orders telling about 150,000 people in the north and east of Gaza to leave their homes to avoid being trapped in a combat zone suggested ground assaults in coming days, but seizure of the Netzarim corridor is the first major move to retake territory in Gaza since Tuesday’s airstrikes, which shattered a two-month-long pause in the hostilities with Hamas.
A private security company that had been securing checkpoints in the Netzarim corridor withdrew overnight and Israeli troops in armoured vehicles and tanks and on foot moved in at dawn on Wednesday, according to western aid officials.
The Israeli forces are believed to have reoccupied four fortified bases there and closed off all access. Travelling from north to south Gaza is now impossible, the officials said.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has said the new offensive will continue until “total victory” is achieved over Hamas and the 59 remaining hostages held by the militant group are freed.
As part of the ceasefire deal agreed in January, Israel had withdrawn from the Netzarim corridor….
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“Return the hostages and remove Hamas, and other options will open up for you – including the possibility of leaving for other places in the world, for those who want to,” Katz said.
Hundreds of thousands returned to what remained of their homes and Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone around the edges of Gaza during the ceasefire, which began in mid-January.
When the agreed first phase of the ceasefire ended 17 days ago, Israel reimposed a blockade on Gaza, cutting off all supplies….
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