Israel has announced a major new military offensive in Gaza after launching a wave of airstrikes that killed more than 100 people, in what it said was a fresh effort to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages. The Israel Defense Forces said they had “launched extensive attacks and mobilized forces to seize strategic areas in the Gaza Strip” as part of the opening moves of Operation Gideon’s Chariots.
The escalation came as Donald Trump concluded a regional visit that included Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates but not Israel. Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Mr Trump acknowledged that people are starving in Gaza and said the US would have the situation “taken care of”. He also reiterated a desire to turn Gaza into a “freedom zone”, but hopes that the visit might lead to a fresh pause in hostilities were not realised.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes on Friday had killed 108 people, most of them women and children, while some officials put the number killed in recent days at as high as 250 or 300. At least 48 bodies were taken to the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza and 16 to Nasser hospital after strikes on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. In Jabaliya, women sat weeping beside ten bodies draped in white sheets.
Israel’s military said its air force had struck more than 150 “terror” targets. Hamas still holds 57 of about 250 hostages seized in its October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people. Israel says its blockade and intensified bombardment since mid-March are intended to pressure Hamas to release the hostages, fewer than half of whom are believed to be still alive.
The new offensive follows the breakdown in March of a ceasefire that had come into effect in January, after Israel refused to move to a scheduled second phase. Tens of thousands of reservists have been called up, and Benjamin Netanyahu has said troops will hold on to seized territory, leading to significant displacement of the population. Some of the heaviest strikes have been aimed at Hamas’s commander in Gaza, who Israeli officials said was sheltering in tunnel systems under a hospital complex in Khan Younis.
The announcement came after Hamas on Monday freed Edan Alexander, the last living US citizen it held, in a release that left Israel sidelined. A senior Hamas official said the group was “awaiting and expecting the US administration to exert further pressure” on Israel.
