People walk surrounded by buildings destroyed during the Israeli air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel on March 20. (Leo Correa/AP)
BEIRUT — Israeli attacks killed scores of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, local authorities said, as the military expanded its ground incursion into the enclave’s north and Hamas fired back with rockets for the first time since Israel, breaking an internationally mediated ceasefire agreement, resumed strikes on the territory earlier this week.
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The Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, said that 85 people had been killed since dawn, sending the death toll since Tuesday past 500, and said that more people were trapped under the rubble. In a statement Thursday, the Israeli military said it had launched a ground operation along the coastal route in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, while a spokesman, Avichay Adraee, announced that residents were once again prohibited from moving between north and south along the enclave’s main road, Salah al-Din.
Several hours later, Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the “massacres against civilians.” The Israeli military said three projectiles were fired from Gaza, one of which was intercepted. The other two landed in an open area, the military said.
At least six of the fatalities in Gaza in recent days were employees of the United Nations, officials said. An explosion at a U.N. guesthouse in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah on Wednesday killed at least one staff member, a Bulgarian national, and injured five others. On Thursday, the head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said that five of the organization’s employees have been killed since Tuesday, bring UNRWA’s total death toll since the war started to 284.
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“They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable,” he said in a statement posted on X.
The fresh round of violence came after Israel announced Wednesday that its troops had recaptured part of the Netzarim Corridor that bisects Gaza and deployed an infantry brigade along the enclave’s perimeter. The decision Thursday to block residents from moving between the north and south of the route sparked fears among families that they could once again be indefinitely separated on either side of the enclave should the Israeli military impose another siege on the north.
Ghadeer Ayoub, 33, said she has felt “constant anxiety” since Israel renewed its attacks on the strip. Her parents left Deir al-Balah, where she stayed for work, and returned to their home in Beit Lahia at the beginning of the ceasefire in January. This morning, she said, they reaffirmed their stance of the past two days: They will not leave their land again unless the north faces another ground invasion or a siege. It had simply been too difficult for them to get back there in the first place, they said.
“It’s not easy for them to leave their land,” she told The Washington Post by text. “They will stay in the north for as long as they can.”
But the thundering resumption of attacks has moved quicker than they anticipated. Within hours, they were grappling with what to do as the military announced that ground operations were beginning in Beit Lahia. “They can’t make a decision,” Ayoub said.
Residents can still move south using the coastal road, the Israeli military said Thursday, but residents expressed fear that they could be shot along the route and considered the journey a substantial risk.
“Maybe they could set up a tent in Gaza City, or somewhere else that’s empty,” Ayoub said of her parents.
But she was also grappling with the question of where she might go if troops advanced toward her location. In Deir al-Balah, where she’s staying, news footage Thursday showed long bread lines forming. Israel blocked all food, fuel and aid to Gaza on March 2.
“Day by day, the materials are decreasing and the prices are rising significantly,” Ayoub said.
Loveluck reported from London, El Chamaa from Beirut and Soroka from Tel Aviv.