Israel launches ground offensive in Gaza after killing UN worker
The Israeli military said on Wednesday it has launched a renewed ground offensive in central and southern Gaza, hours after it struck a United Nations building, killing one UN worker.
In a statement on X, the army said the "targeted" operations are intended to "expand the security zone and to create a partial buffer" between northern and southern parts of the Palestinian enclave.
It added that troops had "taken control and expanded their presence up to the central Netzarim Corridor", which bisects Gaza.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said the move was a "final warning" for Hamas to release captives.
"Take the advice of the president of the United States. Return the hostages and remove Hamas, and other options will open up for you, including the possibility of leaving for other places in the world for those who want to," he said in a video statement.
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The ground offensive was launched soon after an Israeli air strike killed a UN worker and critically wounded five others in the central Gaza Strip.
The bombing targeted a UN headquarters in Deir al-Balah, local media reported.
Six foreign staff members were seriously wounded, and one of them died upon arrival at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the Gaza health ministry added.
The victims were members of the United Nations Mine Action Service, which is responsible for clearing leftover explosive devices.
The UN confirmed the casualties, with Jorge Moreira da Silva, chief of the UN Office for Project Services, saying that "an explosive ordnance was dropped or fired at the infrastructure and detonated inside the building".
"Israel knew that this was a UN premises, that people were living, staying and working there, it is a compound. It is a very well-known place,” he told a news conference in Brussels.
"This was not an accident," he added. "What’s happening in Gaza is unconscionable."
The Israeli military denied it bombed the headquarters, instead claiming it had struck a Hamas site in northern Gaza.
Hamas condemned the strike as forming part of Israel’s “systematic policy” to target civilians and aid workers, aiming to “terrorise” them and worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Gaza’s government media office also denounced Israel’s “deliberate policy” of targeting relief workers and called for an international probe and for the UN to “take a clear and strong stance regarding this crime, and to act immediately” to hold Israel accountable”.
Deadly bombardments continue
Israel shattered its fragile ceasefire with Hamas when it launched renewed strikes across the enclave in the early hours of Tuesday morning, killing at least 436 Palestinians on one day alone.
Two-thirds of the casualties were women and children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said fighting was resuming “in full force” and vowed that the assault was “just the beginning”.
The Israeli military has also issued fresh expulsion orders for the neighbourhoods of Beit Hanoun, Khirbet Khuza’a, Abasan al-Kabira and Abasan al-Jadida, forcing hundreds of Palestinians to flee.
On Wednesday, deadly bombardments continued across the enclave, with strikes reported in Nuseirat and Gaza City, killing at least 29 people so far, according to Al Jazeera.
Wafa news agency reported that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack targeting a vehicle north of Rafah in southern Gaza.
The latest casualties have seen the overall death toll of Palestinians killed by Israel since 7 October surge to at least 49,547.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said she told Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar that the renewed assault is “unacceptable".
Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in Jerusalem to protest the resumption of war and the government’s efforts to fire Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service.
In central Jerusalem, the protesters blocked the road outside Netanyahu's residence for over five hours. The crowds were heard denouncing the prime minister as a “traitor”.
At least four protesters have been arrested so far.
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