The Israeli military on Wednesday said that its forces have resumed ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip, as a second day of airstrikes killed at least 20 Palestinians, reports Reuters, quoting local health workers. The renewed ground operation comes a day after more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the airstrikes in one of the deadliest episodes since the beginning of the conflict, shattering a ceasefire that has largely held since January.
According to Reuters, the Israeli military said that its operations have extended Israel’s control over the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza, and were a “focused” manoeuvre aimed at creating a partial buffer zone between the north and the south of the enclave.
The United Nations said that an Israeli airstrike had killed a foreign staffer and wounded five workers at the site of a UN headquarters in central Gaza City on Wednesday. But Israel denied it and said that it had hit a Hamas site, where it had detected the preparations for firing into Israeli territory.
The executive director of the UN office for Project Services, Jorge Moreira da Silva, said: “Israel knew that this was a U.N. premises, that people were living, staying and working there, it is a compound. It is a very well-known place.”
Israel, which has vowed to eradicate Hamas, said that its latest onslaught was “just the beginning”.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of breaching the truce, which had offered a respite for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents after 17 months of war that reduced the enclave to rubble and also forced most of its population to evacuate several times.
The Israeli campaign has killed over 49,000 people in Gaza, reports Reuters, quoting Palestinian health authorities, and has caused a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food, fuel, and water.
