A plume of smoke erupts from a demolition carried out by Israeli forces on a Palestinian building in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on 24 March 2025. Israel on 18 March resumed military operations in the Gaza Strip after a period of relative calm since a 19 January ceasefire with Hamas paused more than 15 months of war, citing deadlock in indirect negotiations on next steps in the truce after its first stage expired earlier in March. bashar taleb/Agence France-Presse
WORLD

Israel presses Gaza ground offensive

Agence France-Presse

Israel’s military pressed ground operations across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, encircling part of Rafah city near Egypt almost a week into a renewed assault on the Palestinian territory.

Deployment of Israeli troops in parts of Gaza, despite calls to revive a January truce with Hamas militants, comes alongside a deadly flare-up in Lebanon and missiles fired from Yemen.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Sunday that the war triggered by Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack on Israel had killed at least 50,021 people in the territory.

AFP was unable to independently verify the figure. Gaza’s civil defence agency said separately, citing its own records, that the death toll had topped 50,000 people.

Hamas’ attack on Israel resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Israeli troops on Sunday encircled Tal al-Sultan in Rafah, the military said in a statement, adding its objective was to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure and eliminate” militants there.

Earlier on Sunday, Israel had warned residents of the area to evacuate.

Rafah, in southern Gaza, had already been the target of a major Israeli offensive about a year ago.

At a charity kitchen in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza’s main city just north of Rafah, 19-year-old Iman al-Bardawil said many displaced Palestinians are struggling to “afford food and drink” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

“I’m here to get rice for the children, but it’s gone,” said Saed Abu al-Jidyan, who like Bardawil had fled his home in northern Gaza.

“The crossings are closed, and my salary has been suspended since the beginning of the war,” he said. “There is no food in Gaza.”

With fuel unable to enter the territory, AFP images showed Gazans collecting books from the bombed-out Islamic University in Gaza City to use for cooking fires.