Israeli Troops, Tanks Start New Ground Offensive In Gaza

Over a day after it restarted aerial bombings of Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have resumed “focused ground operations” in the “center of the Gaza Strip” over the past 24 hours.

As we observed earlier, clearly an indefinite all-out war is back on, and the collapsed ceasefire will not be put back together anytime soon. The IDF says it has “re-expanded their control to the center of the Netzarim” corridor, which is the buffer zone that separates northern Gaza from the south.

Withdrawal from Netzarim had been part of phase one of the 2-month ceasefire, thus much of the diplomatic work done during that time has now been effectively reversed.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the Palestinians that “the evacuation of the population from the battle zones” in Gaza will “begin again soon,” in a video message Wednesday.

“Take the advice of the U.S. President. Return the hostages and eliminate Hamas, and other options will open up for you – including going to other places in the world for those who wish,” Katz said.

However, the border crossing with Egypt is currently closed, and so hundreds of thousands of civilians will have nowhere to go. The new IDF operation has included the movement of tank units deeper into Gaza.

Gaza’s Health Ministry had said as of Tuesday least 436 Palestinians, including 183 children, have been killed since Israel resumed the bombardment.

Gaza’s hospitals are once again under immense strain:

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warns that medics are struggling to manage a sharp increase in casualties over the last 36 hours due to the resumption of ground operations by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

“Due to the recent suspension of humanitarian aid into Gaza, stocks of medical supplies have dropped significantly and on top of this, hospital staff are struggling to manage the sharp increase of casualties,” the ICRC said in a statement.

The day prior, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu declared “this is just the beginning” regarding the Gaza operation - and also expressed appreciation in the comments for US military help against the Houthis of Yemen. He had further said negotiations can take place “only under fire”.

IDF troops began targeted ground activities in central and southern Gaza, over the past day, in order to expand the security zone and to create a partial buffer between northern and southern Gaza. As part of the ground activities, the troops expanded their control further to… pic.twitter.com/TI4068LAJd

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) March 19, 2025

The White House has said it was aware that Israeli was gearing up for another round of military attacks, and that it’s given a greenlight to the Israeli strikes. This comes after Trump for weeks floated a controversial plan to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, which international groups have condemned as ethnic cleansing.