Israel says it has begun ‘extensive’ new ground operations in Gaza

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel launched “extensive” new ground operations in the Gaza Strip while airstrikes in a new offensive killed at least 103 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza’s main hospital to close.

Airstrikes killed more than 48 people in and around the Palestinian territory’s southern city of Khan Younis, some hitting houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital, which said it struggled to count the dead because of the condition of the bodies. Eighteen children and 13 women were among them, spokesperson Weam Fares said.

In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine members of a family, according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency services. Another strike on a residence in Jabaliya killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government.

In Gaza City, Um Mahmoud al-Aloul lay across the shrouded body of her daughter, Nour al-Aloul.

“You took my soul with you,” she cried. “I used to turn off my phone from how much you called.”

Israel’s military had no immediate comment, but its statement announcing the ground operations said that preliminary strikes over the past week killed dozens of militants and struck more than 670 targets. Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas because the militant group operates from civilian areas.

Israel launched the offensive Saturday with the aims of seizing territory, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza’s south and taking greater control of aid distribution.

An Israeli blockade on food, medicine and other supplies is now in its third month, with global food security experts warning of famine across the territory of more than 2 million people.

Talks in Qatar

Israel has said it is pressuring Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire on Israel’s terms — one that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but wouldn’t necessarily end the war. Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and a pathway to ending the war as part of any new ceasefire deal.

Israel had said it would wait until the end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East before launching its offensive, saying it was giving a chance for efforts at a new deal. Trump didn’t visit Israel on his trip, which ended Friday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that his negotiating team in Qatar’s capital, Doha, was “working to realize every chance for a deal,” including one that would bring an end to fighting in exchange for the release of all remaining 58 hostages, Hamas’ exile from Gaza and the disarmament of the Palestinian territory.

Hamas has refused to leave Gaza or disarm.

Israel shattered a previous eight-week ceasefire in March, launching airstrikes that killed hundreds of people. Days before that, Israel halted all imports into Gaza, deepening the humanitarian crisis.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.

Hospital cites Israeli ‘siege’

Health officials said that fighting around the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and an Israeli military “siege” prompted it to shut down.

The hospital was the main medical facility in the north after Israeli strikes last year forced the Kamal Adwan and Beit Hanoun hospitals to stop offering services.

Israel’s military said troops were “operating against terror infrastructure sites in northern Gaza,” including in the area adjacent to the Indonesian Hospital, without providing details.

Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals in the war, accusing Hamas of being active in and around the facilities. Human rights groups and U.N.-backed experts have accused Israel of systematically destroying Gaza’s health care system.

In northern Gaza, partly flattened by Israel’s onslaught, at least 43 people were killed in strikes, according to first responders from the HealthMinistry and civil defense. Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital said that 15 children and 12 women were among the dead.

In central Gaza, strikes killed at least 12 people, hospitals said. One in Zweida town killed seven people, including two children and four women, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah. Another hit an apartment in Deir al-Balah, killing parents and their child, the hospital said. In Nuseirat camp, a strike hit a house and killed two people, the camp’s Awda hospital said.

Houthi rebels launch missile at Israel

The Israeli military said that it intercepted a missile launched early Sunday by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The rebels said that they fired two ballistic missiles — including a hypersonic one — towards Israel’s main airport near Tel Aviv, whose grounds were struck by a Houthi missile earlier this month.

Israel was left out of a recent U.S. deal to halt attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen in exchange for a stop to strikes on U.S. shipping vessels in the Red Sea. On Friday, Israel struck Yemen for the eighth time since the start of the war in Gaza, in response to the Houthi attacks. The Houthis have said they are attacking in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.