(The Australian, 20/3/2025)
God help them all – Mark
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.
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