Israel moves ground troops back into Gaza

The escalation after two days of air strikes comes as negotiators race to re-establish a ceasefire.

After an Israeli airstrike hit the home of the Abu Mershud family in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp. Picture: via Getty Images

Israel said it sent ground troops back into the centre and south of the Gaza Strip, expanding a military operation that began with a wave of air strikes a day earlier that Palestinian authorities said killed hundreds of people.

Israel said its forces were moving into a key corridor that bisects the Gaza Strip across its centre line, aiming to partly split the northern and southern halves of the territory. It said other forces would be positioned in the south and ready to operate in Gaza.

The troop movements further roll back gains Hamas made under a two-month ceasefire and are part of a strategy of gradually ramping up pressure on the US-designated terrorist group.

Israel’s military carved out what is called the Netzarim corridor early in the war and used it to control the movement of Palestinians throughout the enclave. It withdrew in February, leaving it with a small troop presence along Gaza’s border with Egypt and in a buffer zone along the border with Israel.

The pullback had allowed displaced Palestinians for the first time in the 17-month war to move with relative ease from tent encampments and other temporary shelters in the south back to their homes, or the remains of their homes, in the north. Enabling that return had been a key demand from Hamas throughout months of negotiations and a major achievement it touted after the cease-fire deal was sealed in January. When Israel withdrew, Hamas hailed it as a victory that “shattered the illusions” of Israeli military control.

The decision to send troops back into the Netzarim corridor gives Israel back one of its best negotiating cards with Hamas and puts Israeli troops in a good strategic position for a ground assault against the group, said Yaron Buskila, a lieutenant colonel in Israel’s military reserves and chief executive of Israel Defense and Security Forum, a security-oriented think tank.

An elderly Palestinian man walks past people gathered near the rubble of the Elias Tarazi family house, after it was destroyed in an Israeli strike in al-Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City on March 19. Picture: AFP

“We need more pressure levers,” he said. “Once we go back to negotiate we will have a card.”

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel has plans in place to increase military pressure on Gaza up to the level of a full-scale invasion if an agreement isn’t reached. The steps kicked off this month with Israel blocking the entry of goods and supplies, cutting off power and now airstrikes. Further steps would include tactical raids against Hamas targets and wider displacements of the Palestinian population.

Israel ordered Palestinians to evacuate from a number of locations across Gaza on Tuesday. Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday warned that further evacuations could be ordered and that attacks could be stepped up significantly.

“Gaza residents, this is a final warning,” Katz said on X. “It will become much more difficult and you will pay the full price.”

The military maneuvers came as Egypt floated a proposal for Hamas to release a limited number of hostages in exchange for an immediate halt to the strikes.

Arab mediators said the proposal, which was presented to Israel and Hamas late Tuesday, called for the return of 21-year old American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander along with the bodies of four other U.S. hostages in exchange for a cease-fire that would last at least a month and the commencement of negotiations to end the war.

Israel and Hamas hasn’t responded to the proposal. The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment, but Israel and the U.S. rejected a similar offer from Hamas last week. Hamas didn’t respond to a request for comment. Neither side has negotiators actively in Cairo.

Citing frustration with a lack of progress in talks to free the hostages, Israel resumed airstrikes on the Gaza Strip before dawn Tuesday with a barrage that killed more than 400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, who didn’t say how many were combatants.

The attacks continued Wednesday. The United Nations said one of its facilities was hit by explosive ordnance, killing an international staffer and several others, but said it didn’t have details of the incident. The Israeli military said it hadn’t struck a U.N. facility.

Israel said that its strikes on Tuesday targeted Hamas’s political leadership, midrank military commanders and infrastructure, and that the attacks would continue and expand beyond airstrikes.

Freeing Edan Alexander, the last remaining living U.S. hostage, has been a priority for the Trump administration.

“It’s this administration’s job to reshuffle the cards and put everyone back around the bargaining table and bring a new deal,” Adi Alexander, Edan’s father, said in an interview with the Journal earlier this month. “We are in no man’s land right now.”

Demonstrator holds a sign showing the face of Israeli hostage Edan Alexander during a protest calling for action to release the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza, outside the Israeli Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on March 15. Picture: AFP

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff helped broker a multistage cease-fire in January that paused the fighting for two months and led to the release of 33 Israeli hostages and five Thai hostages in exchange for more than 1,700 Palestinian prisoners.

The deal was structured to defer discussions on the more difficult questions of a permanent end to the war, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages. Those talks were supposed to begin more than a month ago, but Israel has refused to discuss ending its ability to strike at Hamas, while the militant group has snubbed offers to extend the cease-fire in exchange for freeing more hostages.

Meditators hoped the Egyptian proposal could break the deadlock in the negotiations, which have been going on without progress for weeks in Doha and Cairo.

The proposal would eventually lead to the release of other hostages, though the exact numbers need to be negotiated, the Arab mediators said. Negotiations toward ending the war would start as soon as the five Americans are returned by Hamas, they said.

A total of 59 hostages have yet to return from Gaza, including 24 that Israel believes are still alive based on intelligence and testimonies from recently released hostages.

Hostage families worry the renewed military campaign is endangering the lives of their relatives. More than 40 hostages have been killed in Gaza, including more than a dozen as a result of Israeli military activity including airstrikes, according to the military.

Polls show many Israelis, even some on the right, say the priority should be freeing the hostages and feel only a negotiated settlement to the war can bring them back.

Protests calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the fighting and bring the hostages home have intensified. Some protesters and hostage relatives have been camping in silver tents outside Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv since Sunday. Thousands of Israelis also took to the streets of Jerusalem on Wednesday to demand an end to the war and the release of the hostages.

“Netanyahu has opened the gates of hell on the hostages and only together we can save them!” cried protest leader Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zanguaker, at a protest in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal