Over the past three days, Israeli forces have bombarded targets across Gaza, saying they were attacking Hamas sites and operatives. Israeli ground troops have seized a major corridor in central Gaza that they withdrew from under the cease-fire, and they have expanded ground operations in northern and southern Gaza.
Hamas has confirmed the deaths of at least five senior officials in its Gaza leadership since the offensive began. The Israeli military says it has killed others. On Friday, it said in a statement that it had killed Osama Tabash, a leader in Hamas’s military intelligence branch, in an airstrike the day before.
On Friday, the Israeli military bombarded the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in central Gaza, saying it had struck militants operating there. The Israeli military said that the building was no longer being used as a medical center. Israeli soldiers had used the hospital for months as a base themselves last year before withdrawing.
Hamas’s military response to renewed Israeli attacks has so far been limited. The group’s military capabilities were significantly degraded by the war, although it is still believed to command tens of thousands of armed fighters. Israeli officials say Hamas has been using the cease-fire to regroup, plan for future fighting and to plant explosive devices.
On Thursday, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel for the first time in months, but all were either intercepted or fell without causing casualties, a far cry from the barrages it could muster in the early months of the war.
Israel hopes to compel Hamas to free more of the remaining hostages seized in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war in Gaza. As many as 24 living captives — and the remains of more than 30 others — are still in Gaza, according to the Israeli government.
Even before the cease-fire collapsed this week, Israel had blocked humanitarian aid to Gaza, preventing shipments of food and medicine from reaching Palestinians still recovering from more than a year of hunger and wartime deprivation.
The Israeli military still has many options to escalate the new offensive further. In the latest operations, Israeli troops have so far not swept through Palestinian cities in Gaza, divided the enclave in two or forcibly evacuated northern Gaza en masse, as they did during the 15-month campaign against Hamas.
Israel has vowed not to end the war in Gaza without Hamas’s destruction. Hamas has said it is willing to hand over civilian responsibilities in the enclave, but it has refused to disband its battalions of armed fighters or send its leaders there into exile.
Diplomats, including from the United States, are hoping to broker at least a partial deal to bring both sides back to the cease-fire, free more hostages and allow humanitarian aid to begin flowing into Gaza again.
