Israel expands ground offensive in Gaza City

Israeli forces have launched a ground offensive in Gaza City, the military said Friday, expanding their operations as rescuers reported at least 30 killed across the Palestinian territory since dawn.

Since renewed military operations last month ended a short-lived truce in its war with Hamas, Israel has pushed to seize territory in the Gaza Strip in what it said was a strategy to force fighters to free hostages still in captivity.

Israel has also escalated attacks on Lebanon, where a US envoy was visiting on Friday, hours after a pre-dawn strike on the port city of Sidon killed a Hamas commander.

In Gaza City, the Israeli army said ground troops were operating in the Shujaiya area “in order to expand the security zone” established by the military inside the Palestinian territory.

“The situation is very dangerous, and there is death coming at us from every direction,” Elena Helles told the media via text message, saying her family were trapped in her sister’s house in Shujaiya.

Others fled the area following an Israeli evacuation order on Thursday, AFPTV footage showed.

Palestinians inspect the damage at the Dar Al-Arqam school after it was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza City on Thursday. Reuters

The civil defence agency said Israeli military operations across Gaza killed at least 30 people on Friday.

A single strike on Khan Yunis killed at least 25 people, a medical source at the southern city’s Nasser Hospital told AFP.

Ahmed al-Aqqad, whose family owned the bombarded building, told AFP more bodies may be buried “under the rubble, but we cannot get them out due to the lack of necessary equipment”.

“We call on the entire world to stand together to stop the bloodshed,” said relative Diaa al-Aqqad.

‘Couldn’t find our children’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army was dividing Gaza and “seizing territory” to force Hamas to free the remaining Israeli hostages taken captive during the October 2023 attack that sparked the war.

Out of 251 people abducted during the Hamas attack on Israel, 58 remain hostage in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, on Friday warned that the offensive was putting hostages’ lives at risk.

“Half of the living Israeli (captive) are located in areas that the Israeli occupation army has requested to be evacuated in recent days,” spokesman Abu Obeida said.

One Israeli strike on Thursday hit a school used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians in the Gaza City area, the civil defence agency said, reporting at least 31 killed including children.

A woman reacts as Palestinians inspect the damage at the Dar Al-Arqam school, where displaced people shelter, after it was hit by an Israeli strike on Thursday. Reuters

“They bombed us with missiles and everything went dark… We couldn’t find our children,” sobbed Raghda al-Sharafa, who was among the displaced civilians sheltering at the Dar al-Arqam School compound in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City.

The Israeli military confirmed it struck the school, telling AFP it targeted “prominent terrorists who were in a Hamas command and control centre”.

In Nuseirat in central Gaza, Ziad Abu Rialah said on Friday: “I’m afraid to close my eyes during the night, out of fear that when I get up I will not find my family members, because of the shelling that we witness on a daily basis.”

Lebanon strike

Doctors Without Borders said on Friday that its staff member Hussam Al Loulou, 58, was killed along with family members in an air strike earlier this week in central Gaza, one of hundreds of aid workers killed during the war.

“We strongly condemn his killing and call yet again for the immediate restoration of the ceasefire and protection of civilians,” the medical charity said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 1,249 people have been killed since Israel resumed intense bombing last month, bringing the overall death toll since the war began to 50,609.

The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In Lebanon, Hamas’s military wing said its commander Hassan Farhat was killed in an Israeli strike that hit “inside his apartment” in Sidon, also killing his son Hamza and daughter Jenan.

The Israeli military, confirming it had killed Hassan Farhat, accused him of orchestrating attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians including deadly rocket fire on the town of Safed last year.

Lebanon condemned a “flagrant attack” on its sovereignty and what it said was a violation of a November truce between Israel and Lebanese group Hizbollah, a Hamas ally.

The US deputy special envoy for the Middle East, Morgan Ortagus — whose country has helped oversee the truce — was in Beirut for meetings with top officials, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.