Summary of the day
Israel’s defence minister has said the country intends to “seize large areas” of the Gaza Strip amid a major expansion of aerial and ground operations in the besieged Palestinian territory
Israel Katz said in a statement on Wednesday that “troops will move to clear areas of terrorists and infrastructure, and seize extensive territory that will be added to the state of Israel’s security areas”
Katz also said he was calling on Palestinian civilians to flee areas where fighting had returned after the collapse of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last month and to “act now to overthrow Hamas and return all the hostages”
Israel continued to target the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes overnight killing 17 people in the southern city of Khan Younis. Another 15 people were killed in a strike in the north of the strip Wednesday, according to officials at hospitals where the bodies were taken. Among those killed by the strikes were at five women, one of them pregnant, and two children
The Israeli military issued sweeping evacuation orders last week for people in Rafah and a swath of land stretching northwards towards Khan Younis to move to al-Mawasi, an area on the shore that Israel has designated as a humanitarian zone but repeatedly bombed
Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Hungary, despite the host country being a signatory to the international criminal court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister on suspicion of war crimes
Hamas and Jordan’s foreign ministry criticised far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for a visit to Jerusalem’s holiest sites on Wednesday morning. Jordan called it “a dangerous escalation, unacceptable provocation, and desecration of the holiness of the al-Aqsa mosque”
A demonstration has taken place in Jerusalem, with protesters calling for the government to enact a new conscription law which would end the exemption ultra-Orthodox Jewish men have on serving in the IDF
Crowds gathered in Nablus for the funeral of a 33-year-old man, Hamza al-Hamash, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied city earlier on Wednesday. Israeli forces also reportedly made arrests in Hebron, Tulkarm and Nour Shams
A demonstration has taken place in Jerusalem today, with protesters calling for the government to enact a new conscription law, which would end the exemption ultra-Orthodox Jewish men have on serving in the IDF. The march to the Knesset included the families of soldiers killed during the war in Gaza, as well as reservist soldier. The issue has been a political thorn for Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government for some time.
Israel’s military has announced that an incident involving the “suspicion of a hostile aircraft infiltration” near Kissufim has concluded. It said no injuries were reported. Kissufim is close to Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, and is to the north-east of Khan Younis.
The sweeping forced displacement orders issued by Israel’s armed forces to civilians in Gaza this week have placed increased pressure on the delivery of humanitarian aid to people in the south of the territory.
Crowds have gathered in Nablus for the funeral of 33-year-old man, Hamza al-Hamash, who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in Israeli-occupied Nablus earlier on Wednesday.
Jordan has also criticised far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for his visit to Jerusalem’s holiest sites earlier today.
In a statement Jordan’s foreign ministry said “The entrance of the far-right minister into al-Aqsa mosque while accompanied by the occupation’s police brings a dangerous escalation, unacceptable provocation, and desecration of the holiness of the al-Aqsa mosque and the historic and legal status quo in place. Israel has no sovereignty over occupied Jerusalem, or Islamic and Christian holy sites.”
Hamas has condemned a visit on Wednesday by Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, calling it a “provocative and dangerous escalation”.
In a statement reported by AFP, the Palestinian militant group called for Palestinians “and our youth in the West Bank to escalate their confrontation ... in defence of our land and our sanctities, foremost among them the blessed al-Aqsa mosque”.
The disputed site is sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
Today so far
Here’s a recap of the day so far. Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” according to defence minister Israel Katz. Officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 30 people, nearly a dozen of them children.
Israel says it is expanding its offensive in the Palestinian territory “to crush and clean the area” of militants and to seize “large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel”.
The Israeli government has long maintained a buffer zone just inside Gaza along its security fence and has greatly expanded since the war began in 2023. Israel says the buffer zone is needed for its security, while Palestinians view it as a land grab.
Katz didn’t specify which areas of Gaza would be seized in the expanded operation, which he said includes the “extensive evacuation” of the population from fighting areas. His statement came after Israel ordered the full evacuation of the southern city of Rafah and nearby areas.
The Hostage Families Forum, which represents most captives’ families, said that it was “horrified to wake up this morning to the defense minister’s announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza.” The group said the Israeli government “has an obligation to free all 59 hostages from Hamas captivity — to pursue every possible channel to advance a deal for their release.”
Israel continued to target the Gaza Strip, with airstrikes overnight killing 17 people in the southern city of Khan Younis. Another 15 people were killed in a strike in the north of the strip Wednesday, according to officials at hospitals where the bodies were taken.
Officials at the Nasser Hospital said the bodies of 12 people killed in an overnight airstrike that were brought to the hospital included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children. Officials at the Gaza European Hospital said they received five bodies of people killed in two separate airstrikes.
Officials at the Indonesian Hospital said an Israeli strike on a building of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip killed 15 people, including nine children and two women. The Palestinian Civil Defense said the building had been an UNRWA clinic that was now being used to house displaced people.
Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Hungary later today, despite an arrest warrant from the international criminal court (ICC) putting him at risk while visiting states that are signatories to the court. It is unclear what this means for Hungary’s membership of the ICC.
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military has claimed to have struck at Hamas targets in Jabalia in Gaza.
In the message it claimed that “terrorists were hiding inside a command and control centre that was being used for coordinating terrorist activity and served as a central meeting point for the terrorist organization. Additionally, the compound was used by the Hamas’ Jabalia Battalion to plan terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops.”
Palestinian sources claim that on Wednesday 19 people had been killed, including nine children, in Israeli stikes on the Jabalia area. Wafa reported that “residents struggled to identify the victims” after the strikes caused a fire.
In his earlier statement, Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz said the renewed offensive in Gaza was “expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel.”
Reuters notes that according to the Israeli rights group Gisha, Israel has already taken control of about 62 square kilometres, some 17% of the total area of Gaza, as part of a buffer zone around the edges of the territory.
Netanyahu to visit Hungary despite ICC arrest warrant
Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Hungary later today, despite an arrest warrant from the international criminal court (ICC) putting him at risk while visiting states that are signatories to the court. The trip was announced by the Israeli prime minister’s office on Sunday.
Yesterday, Human Rights Watch urged Hungary to deny him entry, or carry out an arrest. Liz Evenson, international justice director, said“[Viktor] Orbán invitation to Netanyahu is an affront to victims of serious crimes. Hungary should comply with its legal obligations as a party to the ICC and arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot in the country.”
In November 2024 the international criminal court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israel’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif for alleged war crimes relating to the Gaza war.
The visit to Hungary will be Netanyahu’s second venture abroad since the warrant was issued. In February he met with US president Donald Trump in Washington. Neither Israel or the US are ratified signatories to the court.
Updated
Global children’s charity Plan International UK has issued a statement after Israel announced it was planning to seize large areas of Gaza. Kathleen Spencer Chapman said:
We utterly condemn Israel’s intention to expand its military violence in Gaza. These are ruthless acts of aggression against a starving and traumatised population. The people of Gaza have no shelter, no means of protecting themselves, and Israel’s illegal blockade has left medics without the supplies they need to treat the wounded. This isn’t war. This is an atrocity.
World leaders must put a stop to this horror. The ceasefire must be reinstated and aid allowed back into and throughout Gaza. Children and their families are in desperate need of food, water, medical supplies, and shelter. Without a ceasefire and an urgent influx of humanitarian aid, thousands more could die from hunger and related diseases alone.
Plan International UK works across over 80 countries, supporting girls against poverty, violence and discrimination.
In a statement, Germany’s foreign office says it has worked with Israeli authorities to assist 19 German citizens and their close family members in traveling from Gaza to Germany, Associated Press reports.
The statement described it as a routine wartime evacuation, adding “Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, the German government has repeatedly and intensively advocated for the departure and safety of German citizens.”
Former hostage Romi Gonen has posted to social media to say that “Every explosion shatters the hostages’ hopes a little more. I was there. I know.”
Gonen was released from Hamas captivity on 19 January, having been held for over 15 months since being seized and abducted on 7 October 2023.
She added in the post “I beg of the decision-makers. Don’t wait another moment. Bring back all 59 hostages.”
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza.
Updated
In a statement on its official Telegram channel, Israel’s military claims it has killed “an armed terrorist … approaching the security fence in southern Gaza.”
The IDF said that he “posed a threat to IDF troops”. The statement added that there were no IDF casualties.
The death toll from Israeli strikes on Gaza in the last few hours has been put at 21 by medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera. At least 12 Palestinians were killed by a strike on a house in Khan Younis. Here are some of the latest images sent over the news wire.
The father of one of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, Alon Ohel, has spoken to Hebrew media outlet Ynet, saying that he is “worried” by the announcement that Israel intends to expand its military operation in Gaza again and “capture large areas.”
Kobi Ohel said “I woke up to another day that I am worried and afraid for Alon’s fate. From what we know and have seen, fighting did not bring the kidnapped people home, and the way to return them is through a deal. Alon needs to be returned and saved.”
Pregnant woman among Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Khan Younis – reports
Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip have killed 17 people, Associated Press reports hospital officials have said.
The bodies of 12 people killed in an overnight airstrike were brought to Nasser hospital, officials said Wednesday, and the victims included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children. Three men from the same family were killed, as were the owners of the house that was bombed, officials said.
Gaza offensive expanding to capture 'large areas', says Israeli defence minister
Airstrikes continued on Gaza on Wednesday morning after the Israeli defense minister announced that Israel intended to expand its war. In a statement, Israel Katz said the offensive was “expanding to crush and clean the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure and capture large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel.”
The move has been condemned by the Hostages Families Forum, who said it appeared that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were making the return of 59 hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas “a secondary task” that had been “pushed to the bottom of the priority list.”
In a post to social media, Katz said:
I wish success to the IDF soldiers who are fighting bravely and powerfully in Gaza for the return of the kidnapped and the defeat of Hamas. The goal of Operation “Strength and Sword” is first and foremost to increase pressure for the release of all the hostages in the face of Hamas’ refusal.
Expanding the operation this morning will increase the pressure on the Hamas murderers and also on the population in Gaza and advance the achievement of the sacred and important goal for all of us. I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to remove Hamas and return all the hostages. This is the only way to end the war.
The IDF has deployed an additional division to the area, and issued sweeping evacuation orders to the civilian population in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources in Gaza have told Al Jazeera that 21 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since dawn on Wednesday morning. The network has been banned from operating inside Israel.
Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported that extensive Israeli security operations have continued inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with one man shot dead by Israeli forces in Nablus, and Palestinians being detained by Israel’s forces in Hebron, Tulkarm and Nour Shams.
Updated
Al Jazeera reports there have been two Israeli airstrikes on the south of Gaza City. There is no information on casualties at present, however medical sources have told the news network that 21 Palestinians have been killed since dawn by Israeli attacks.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reports continued activity by Israeli security forces inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank. On Wednesday morning the agency reported a 33-year-old man had been shot and killed by Israel’s forces in Nablus. It reported that another Palestinian was injured in Nablus when they were run over by an Israeli military vehicle.
In Hebron, seven Palestinians are reported to have been detained by Israeli forces, and there are reports of further detentions in Tulkarm and the Nour Shams camp.
The Hostages Families Forum has reacted strongly to defense minister Israel Katz’s announcement that Israel is to expand its war further into Gaza.
In a statement, the group which represents friends and family of those being held captive in the Palestinian territory, said:
Did you decide that we are sacrificing hostages for capturing land? Instead of getting the hostages out in a deal and ending the war, Israel’s government is sending more soldiers to Gaza to fight in the same places that they already fought over and over again.
Hamas is believed to still be holding 59 hostages who were seized from Israel and abducted on 7 October, not all of whom are thought to still be alive.
The statement said that the Hostages Families Forum believed the recovery of the hostages had become “a secondary task” and had been “pushed to the bottom of the priority list.”
The families demanded the government explain “how this operation serves the goal of returning the hostages, and how you intend to avoid endangering them.”
Israel’s announcement that the army will seize “large areas” of the Palestinian territory comes after a warning last week that the military would soon “operate with full force” in additional parts of Hamas-run Gaza.
Israel restarted intense bombing of Gaza on 18 March and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s 7 October, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 50,357 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
As of 23 March, more than 140,000 people had been displaced again since the end of the ceasefire, according to the latest UN estimate — and tens of thousands more are estimated to have fled under evacuation orders over the past week.
Every time families have moved during the war, they have had to leave behind belongings and start nearly from scratch, finding food, water and shelter. Now, with no fuel entering, transportation is even more difficult, so many are fleeing with almost nothing.
As Israel orders wide new evacuations across the Gaza Strip, Palestinians say they are crushed by exhaustion and hopelessness at the prospect of fleeing once again, the AP reports.
Many are packing a few belongings and trudging off in search of new shelters. Some say they just can’t bear to move.
When ordered out of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, Ihab Suliman and his family could only grab some food and blankets before making their way south 19 March. It was their eighth time fleeing over the past 18 months of war.
“There is no longer any taste to life,” said Suliman, a former university professor. “Life and death have become one and the same for us.”
Suliman is among the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled temporary shelters since Israel shattered a 2-month-old ceasefire on 18 March with renewed bombardment and ground assaults.
Israel’s defence minister did not make clear how much land Israel intends to seize.
But the country has already set up a significant buffer zone within Gaza, expanding an area that existed around the edges of the enclave before the war, and adding a large security area in the so-called Netzarim corridor through the middle of Gaza.
At the same time, Israeli leaders have said they plan to facilitate voluntary departure of Palestinians from the enclave, after US President Donald Trump called for it to be permanently evacuated and redeveloped as a coastal resort under US control, the so-called “Riveria of the Middle East”.
A video of that bizarre plan to refresh your memory.
A reminder the creator of that AI generated video depicting the Gaza Strip as a Dubai-style paradise said it was intended as a political satire of Trump’s “megalomaniac idea”.
Updated
The move in Gaza comes after the US said it was adding an extra aircraft carrier to its Middle East deployment.
The Carl Vinson will join the Harry S. Truman in the Middle East “to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Tuesday.
US forces have struck Yemen’s Houthi rebels with near-daily air strikes in a campaign aimed at ending the threat they pose to civilian shipping and military vessels in the region.
“To complement the CENTCOM maritime posture, the secretary also ordered the deployment of additional squadrons and other air assets that will further reinforce our defensive air-support capabilities,” Parnell said, referring to the US military command responsible for the region.
The Houthis began targeting shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden after the start of the Gaza war in 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome to live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the Middle East crisis.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has announced an expansion of the military operation in Gaza.
He said on Wednesday morning that large areas of the territory would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel.
He said in a statement there would be a large-scale evacuation of the population from fighting areas and called on Palestinians there to eliminate Hamas and return Israeli hostages, saying this was the only way to end the war.
We will bring you more details as soon as we can.
