Israel expands offensive in northern Gaza with new ground operation, says civilians won't be allowed back
The Israeli military announced Thursday an expansion of its month-old ground operation in northern Gaza to include part of Beit Lahiya, a town that has been heavily bombed since the earliest days of the war, where Israel says Hamas militants have regrouped.
The military said in a statement that "troops started to operate" in the area of Beit Lahiya after intelligence indicated the presence of militants there. Hamas has repeatedly regrouped in areas where the military already conducted major operations.
The town in the northwestern corner of Gaza was among the first targets of the ground invasion launched over a year ago, after Hamas' attack into southern Israel. The northern third of the territory has been encircled by Israeli forces since then.
Israel launched another major offensive in nearby Jabaliya, a decades-old urban refugee camp, in early October. It has sharply restricted the amount of aid entering northern Gaza and ordered a full evacuation. Tens of thousands have fled to nearby Gaza City in the latest mass displacement of the war.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people - mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel's military response in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
Palestinian medical sources told the Al Jazeera network that about 20 people were killed Thursday alone in northern Gaza amid the expanding Israeli operations in Beit Lahiya, including five people killed and five others wounded in a raid on a house in the town.
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that it was continuing to facilitate "the safe evacuation of Palestinians from combat zones in northern Gaza through organized routes for their safety," after an IDF commander said the military was working to displace all civilians from the north of the war-torn Palestinian territory indefinitely.
Briefing journalists Tuesday night, Brigadier General Itzik Cohen, who commands the IDF's 162nd Division operating in Gaza, said that since troops had been forced to enter some areas twice, including the Jabaliya camp, "there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes."
He said humanitarian aid — which the Biden administration has demanded that Israel increase the flow of into Gaza — would be allowed to enter the south of the enclave "regularly," but not the north, as there were, he said, "no more civilians left."
According to a United Nations estimate, however, "between 75,000 and 95,000 people were estimated to remain in North Gaza" as of Monday.
The U.N.'s humanitarian agency OCHA said roughly 100,000 people had been forced to flee the region since Israel launched its offensive in northern Gaza, and "the death toll in the North Gaza governorate over the past month is thought to be in the hundreds, possibly over 1,000."
The U.N. agency said in July that 1.9 million Gaza residents had been forcibly displaced from their homes.
"In other words, approximately nine out of ten people in Gaza are now estimated to be internally displaced, many multiple times," the U.N.'s humanitarian agency said.
That number is likely to have risen since, given Israel's ongoing military operations and routine evacuation orders.
No sign of letup in Israel's parallel war with Hezbollah
Several large Israeli airstrikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs early Thursday, including one on a site adjacent to Lebanon's only international airport. The Israeli military had issued an evacuation notice for the site, saying there were Hezbollah facilities there, without giving more details.
Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said in a speech aired Wednesday that the Lebanese militant group is open for cease-fire negotiations only once "the enemy stops its aggression." His speech marked the 40-day mourning period since former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in Beirut.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Both groups are considered proxy forces backed by Iran, which insisted Thursday that despite Israel killing many top commanders, its "Axis of Resistance" against Israel remained robust. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,600 wounded in Lebanon, according to the country's health ministry.
Lebanon's state news agency said an Israeli drone strike hit a car at an army checkpoint in the southern port city of Sidon, killing three people and wounding several others, including U.N. peacekeepers based in southern Lebanon. The National News Agency said one of the wounded was taken to the hospital while the peacekeepers were treated for minor injuries at the scene of the attack at the northern entrance of Sidon, Lebanon's third-largest city. There was no immediate information on the identities of those who died.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in the country, UNIFIL, said in a statement that a convoy "bringing newly-arrived peacekeepers to south Lebanon was passing Saida when a drone strike occurred nearby" lightly wounding five peacekeepers, whom it said were treated by Lebanese Red Cross medics on the spot.
"They will continue to their posts," UNFIL said of the troops in the convoy, adding: "We remind all actors of their obligation to avoid actions putting peacekeepers or civilians in danger. Differences should be resolved at the negotiating table, not through violence."
A drone strike earlier Thursday hit a car on a main highway just outside Beirut, killing one woman, according to local media.