The Israeli army announced on Sunday that its forces had started “extensive land operations” throughout the northern and southern gaza strip, making its plan advance to move further into the enclave and grasp multiple land in an intensified campaign aimed at making pressure on Hamas in the middle of the negotiations for a cessation.
At the same time, the Israeli government said that it would allow “a basic amount of food” to enter Gaza. The announcement comes 11 weeks after interrupting the entry of all goods and humanitarian assistance in an attempt to force Hamas to accept a temporary extension of a previous agreement of ceased fire.
President Trump was clear about the need to avoid a looming famine in Gaza and some Israeli military officials had concluded privately that the Palestinians faced a widespread hunger there unless they had soon been restored the help of help.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained the abrupt inversion of Israeli policy as “operational necessity to allow the expansion of the military operation to defeat Hamas”, adding in a declaration that the military had recommended the step.
The statement did not say exactly when the resumption of aid would start or how or where it would have been distributed. The plans for a new system supported by the Americans for the distribution of aid intended to bypass Hamas have not yet been implemented.
The details on the renewed offensive were also scarce, and it was not immediately clear to what extent the Israeli forces would go to this phase or which areas of Gaza would have been most affected.
Starting from Sunday evening, the troops had not yet reached the center of the main cities such as Gaza City and Khan Youunis as they did at the culmination of the initial offensive of the land in the autumn of 2023 and at the beginning of 2024. There are also less forces in Gaza now of soldiers.
The Israeli government and military officials promised to press in front of this new stage in the 19 -month war until Hamas releases the hostages that he is still holding or until the group was destroyed or forced to surrender.
The Israeli war planes have beaten Gaza in the last few days to prepare the road to the expansion of land operations, said the military, adding that the wave of strikes had hit what described as over 670 “Hamas' terrorist objectives”.
So far, the military have said, killed “dozen” of the agents of Hamas and has destroyed the military infrastructures used by the group both above and underground. But many civilians, including children, were also killed, according to Palestinian officials and Gaza residents.
The expansion of military operations also arrives when Israel and Hamas are engaged in indirect interviews for a ceased in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
The military issued threats for days on a wider invasion, without many changes visible on the ground. Israeli officials said that the new campaign would be conducted gradually, in phase, and could be stopped if an agreement was reached with Hamas.
The main spokesman for the Israeli army, Brig. General Effie Defin, said on Sunday that the idea was to dissect Gaza in separate areas. He said that the population would have been told to evacuate the areas in which the military operated and that the military were intentionally ambiguous towards his movements to protect his forces.
More than 53,000 Gaza have been killed so far in war, according to health officials in the encycling, whose fatigue tolls do not distinguish between fighters and civilians. The Ministry of Health of Gaza declared on Sunday that the preliminary number of those killed since Dawn was over 90.
Suzanne Abu Daqqa, who lives in Abasan, near the southern city of Khan Younis, said the inhabitants lived through an almost constant bombing in the last few days, touching his home with terrifying explosions.
But he said he was even more afraid that a renewed invasion of the ground could force her to escape from his home – where his family still had a little electricity from the solar panels, as well as a modest escort of rice and flour – for the tent fields at swollen near the coast.
“So many died at all,” said Mrs. Abu Daqqa. “People want war to end up in every means.”
Until the international efforts have not been able to broke the war of the war started with the attack led by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023. That attack killed about 1,200 people and Palestinian attackers reported about 250 hostages to Gaza.
At least 21 living hostages are still held, according to the Israeli government, together with the remains of over 30 others who died in captivity.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel reported for the first time that his negotiation team in Qatar was authorized to discuss the terms for a broad agreement that could end the war in Gaza.
Previously, the office of the Israeli Prime Minister had said that the negotiations would be limited to the discussion of an initial agreement in which Hamas would release about 10 of the living hostages and the two sides would have entered the fire lasting about six weeks.
But even if he talked about the possibility of a wider agreement on Sunday, Netanyahu reiterated his firm conditions to end the war: the release of all the hostages, the expulsion of Gaza of the leaders and fighters of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Palestinian coastal encyc. Hamas firmly rejected the idea of disarming.
Omer Dostri, spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, said that his declaration represented “nothing new and no drama” since Hamas was not ready at this point to surrender.
A Hamas official declared during the weekend that Israel had withdrawn his insistence on the fact that the interviews of truce are based on the previous proposal for an initial agreement and that everything was ready for negotiation.
It was not clear if Mr. Netanyahu's declaration should throw the ground for an unexpected diplomatic move or was mainly aimed at deviating the domestic criticisms that had not done enough to bring the hostages back.
Analysts noticed that Mr. Netanyahu and Hamas also had to face pressure from the Trump administration and that Israel's military pressure on Hamas could work.
Kobi Michael, analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies at the University of Tel Aviv, said that everything above could be true at the same time.
“A significant military dynamic has been created,” said Michael, adding that the killing of many Hamas agents had brought the group back to the negotiation table.
Aaron Boxerman AND Johnatan Reiss Contributed relationships.