Israel-Gaza war: IDF operations kill 591 Palestinians across two days, Hamas leaders eliminated

Israel’s latest military escalations have killed almost 600 Palestinians across Gaza since Tuesday, with the IDF celebrating the elimination of Hamas leaders as ground and air operations continue.

After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign against the Gaza Strip’s dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Gaza’s health ministry says 591 Palestinians, including 200 children, have been killed as war returns to the region, with around 100 of those deaths recorded on Thursday,

Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on residential neighbourhoods, ordering people out of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns in the north, the Shejaia district in Gaza City and towns on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis in the south.

Late on Thursday, Israel’s military said it had begun ground operations in the Shaboura district of Gaza’s southernmost city Rafah, which abuts the Egyptian border.

The IDF said on Thursday, that the latest military operations has resulted in the elimination of Rashid Jahjuh, the Head of Hamas’ General Security Forces and Ayman Atsalih, the Head of the Khan Yunis sector within Hamas’ General Security Forces.

“War is back, displacement and death are back, will we survive this round?” said Samed Sami, 29, who fled Shejaia to put up a tent for his family in a camp on open ground.

A day after sending tanks into the centre of the enclave, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had also begun conducting ground operations in the north of the Gaza Strip, along the coastal route in Beit Lahiya.

Hamas, which had not retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its fighters fired rockets into Israel.

The Israeli military said sirens sounded in the centre of the country after projectiles were launched from the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medics said Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern sections of the Gaza Strip.

With talks having failed to bridge differences over terms to extend the ceasefire, the military resumed its air assaults on the strip with a massive bombing campaign on Tuesday before sending soldiers in the day after.

It said on Thursday that its forces had been engaged for the past 24 hours in what it described as an operation to expand a buffer zone separating the northern and southern halves of the Gaza Strip, known as the Netzarim corridor.

Israel ordered residents to stay away from the Salahuddin road, the enclave’s main north-south route, and said they should travel along the coast instead.

Tuesday’s first day of resumed air strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old conflict, with scant let-up since.

In a blow to Hamas as it sought to rebuild its administration, this week’s strikes have killed some of its top figures, including the de facto Hamas-appointed head of the Gaza Strip government, the chief of security services, his aide and the deputy head of the Hamas-run justice ministry.

Hamas said the Israeli ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim corridor were a “new and dangerous violation” of the ceasefire agreement.

In a statement, it reaffirmed its commitment to the deal and called on mediators to “assume their responsibilities”.

For Israel, a return to full-blown war could prove complicated, some current and former Israeli officials say, amid waning public support and burnout among military reservists.

Protesters accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of continuing the war for political reasons and endangering the lives of remaining hostages.

A temporary first phase of the ceasefire ended at the start of this month.

Hamas wants to move to an agreed second phase, under which Israel would be required to negotiate an end to the war and withdrawal of its troops from the Gaza Strip, and Israeli hostages still held there would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has offered only a temporary extension of the truce, cut off all supplies to the enclave and said it was restarting its military campaign to force Hamas to free remaining hostages.

Speaking to Reuters on Thursday, a Hamas official said mediators had stepped up efforts with the two warring sides but no breakthrough had yet come.

Some residents said there were no signs yet of preparations by Hamas on the ground to resume fighting.

But an official from one militant group allied to Hamas, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters on Thursday that fighters, including from Hamas, had been put on alert awaiting further instructions.

Fighters had also been told to stop using mobile phones.

The war erupted after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip border in October 2023, killing 1200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.

More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gazan health authorities, with much of the enclave reduced to rubble.

- With Reuters