CAIRO/GAZA, Mar 21 (Agencies): At least 200 children have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its military operations in the besieged Palestinian enclave earlier this week, according to UNICEF.
The humanitarian crisis in the region is worsening as Israeli ground troops advance in both the southern and northern areas of Gaza, reports Aljazeera.
Israeli forces have launched a ground invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, while simultaneously pushing into northern areas near Beit Lahiya and central regions, the Israeli military confirmed.
Medical authorities report that more than 590 Palestinians have been killed since Israel broke the ceasefire on Tuesday, with the death toll continuing to climb as intense airstrikes and ground assaults persist.
Gaza's Health Ministry states that at least 49,617 Palestinians have been killed and 112,950 wounded since the war began. However, the Government Media Office in Gaza estimates the total number of deaths at more than 61,700, accounting for thousands of people presumed dead beneath the rubble.
At least 91 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday after Israel resumed bombing and ground operations, the enclave's health ministry said, effectively ditching a two-month-old ceasefire.
After two months of relative calm, Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign against Gaza's dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on residential neighbourhoods, ordering people out of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns in the north, the Shejaia district in Gaza City and towns on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis in the south.
Late on Thursday, Israel's military said it had begun ground operations in the Shaboura district of Gaza's southernmost city Rafah, which abuts the Egyptian border.
"War is back, displacement and death are back, will we survive this round?" said Samed Sami, 29, who fled Shejaia to put up a tent for his family in a camp on open ground.
A day after sending tanks into central Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had also begun conducting ground operations in the north of the densely populated enclave, along the coastal route in Beit Lahiya.
Hamas, which had not retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its fighters fired rockets into Israel. The Israeli military said sirens sounded in the centre of the country after projectiles were launched from Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened Friday to annex parts of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas militants release the remaining Israeli hostages held in the war-battered Palestinian territory.
The warning came as Israel stepped up the renewed assault it launched on Tuesday, shattering the relative calm that had reigned in the war-battered territory since a January 19 ceasefire.
Gaza's civil defence agency said Thursday that 504 people had been killed since the bombardment resumed, one of the highest tolls since the war began more than 17 months ago with Hamas's attack on Israel.
"I ordered (the army) to seize more territory in Gaza... The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel," Katz said in a statement.
Should Hamas not comply, Katz also threatened "to expand buffer zones around Gaza to protect Israeli civilian population areas and soldiers by implementing a permanent Israeli occupation of the area".
AFP images from northern Gaza Friday showed donkey-pulled carts piled high with belongings as residents fled their homes along rubble-strewn roads.
Israel resumed intensive bombing of Gaza on Tuesday, citing deadlock in indirect negotiations on next steps in the truce after its first stage expired early this month.
Its resumption of large-scale military operations was coordinated with US President Donald Trump's administration but drew widespread condemnation.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed concern about the government's actions in a video statement on Thursday, saying it was "unthinkable to resume fighting while still pursuing the sacred mission of bringing our hostages home".
Thousands of protesters have rallied in Jerusalem in recent days, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of resuming military operations without regard for the safety of the hostages.
Israel government sacks
Shin Bet intelligence chief
The head of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, was sacked Friday, days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack. "The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar's term of office," a statement said.
He will leave his post when his successor is appointed or by April 10 at the latest, the statement said.
Netanyahu on Sunday cited an "ongoing lack of trust" as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993.
Bar, meant to end his tenure only next year, was appointed Shin Bet chief in October 2021 by the previous Israeli government that briefly forced Netanyahu from power between June 2021 and December 2022.
His relations with Netanyahu were strained even before the unprecedented October Hamas attack which sparked the war in Gaza, notably over proposed judicial reforms that had split the country.
Relations worsened after the March 4 release of the internal Shin Bet report on the Hamas attack.
It acknowledged the agency's own failure in preventing the attack, but also said "a policy of quiet had enabled Hamas to undergo massive military buildup".
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