Israeli army launches new military operation in central Gaza

The Israeli army on Thursday announced the launch of a new “targeted” military operation in central Gaza, Anadolu news agency reported.

In a statement, the army said that before the Israeli soldiers started the incursion, Israeli warplanes and artillery struck the outskirts of the Nuseirat refugee camp, claiming that the targets were the military infrastructure of the Palestinian group Hamas, including rocket launchers.

It added that the military campaign was being carried out by the army’s 162nd Division, the Nahal infantry brigade, and other units, in addition to naval fire support.

Commenting on the operation, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the Israeli army must intensify military operations in Nuseirat and other parts of the Deir al-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip, as well as in the southern city of Rafah.

Several countries, including the US, have urged Israel to abandon plans for a military offensive against Rafah, which is home to nearly 1.4 million displaced Palestinians.

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Israel has waged a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip since a 7 October cross-border attack by the Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas, which killed less than 1,200 people.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

More than 33,300 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 76,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war, now on day 186, has pushed 85 per cent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.