ISRAEL is set to expand its military operation in Gaza and seize "large areas" of territory, the country's defence minister has said.
Israel Katz said the expanded operation aimed to "destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure", and would require a large-scale evacuation of Palestinians.
It comes as local hospitals said at least 15 Palestinians were killed in the territory overnight.
The Hamas-run civil defence agency said first responders had recovered the bodies of 12 people, including children, from a home in the Khan Younis area.
There have been reports of extensive Israeli air strikes and shelling along the Egypt border and there are fears that a new major Israeli ground offensive is looming in Gaza.
In his statement announcing plans to seize more territory, Katz also urged Gazans to act to remove Hamas and free remaining Israeli hostages, without suggesting how they should do so.
Foreign office minister Hamish Falconer said Britain does not support the expansion of military operations in response to an urgent question in the House of Commons.
Labour MPs have pressed the Government to “take a different course of action” and hold Israel accountable following the expansion of military operations in Gaza.
In the Commons, Florence Eshalomi, MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, said: “What more is it going to take before we as a UK Government take a different course of action? Because Israel is not listening to warm words any longer.”
Labour MP Alex Ballinger also said: “Alongside the aid blockade in the region, this is a clear breach of international humanitarian law. The minister has said that he urges Israel to respect IHL, if Israel continues to ignore the international community on this, what concrete steps will we take to hold them accountable?”
Falconer replied: “We have determined that there is a serious risk of breaches of international humanitarian law by the Israeli government. We will continue to press them on these points.”
This week, Israel's military ordered an estimated 140,000 people in Rafah to leave their homes and issued new evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza.
Israel launched its renewed Gaza offensive on March 18, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal to extend the ceasefire and free the 59 hostages still held captive in Gaza.
Hamas has accused Israel of violating the original deal they had agreed to in January.
On Monday, the bodies of first responders were recovered from a mass grave in Gaza, with Israel accused of bombing them in their emergency vehicles.
A rescue operation was launched on Sunday to recover 15 bodies, eight from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, six from the Palestinian Civil Defense and one from the United Nations (UN).
Aid co-workers found the bodies buried in a mass grave in the Tal Al Sultan area of Rafah, the UN reported.
The first team was killed by Israeli forces on March 23, and other emergency and aid crews were struck one after another over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues.
It has been reported that ambulances, a fire truck and a UN vehicle were bombed by Israeli forces and that the mass grave was marked with the emergency light from one of the obliterated emergency vehicles.
At the weekend, the UN also warned Gaza bakeries will run out of flour within a week.
Eventually, food will run out completely if the flow of aid is not restored, because the war has destroyed almost all local food production in Gaza.
The UN has cut its distribution of food rations in half to redirect more supplies to bakeries and free kitchens producing prepared meals, said Olga Cherevko, spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency, known as OCHA.
The number of prepared meals has grown 25% to 940,000 meals a day, she said, and bakeries are churning out more bread, but that burns through supplies faster.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023.
