By Mick Krever, Lauren Izso and Christian Edwards, CNN
An Israeli soldier operates a tank at a position along Israel's southern border with the northern Gaza Strip on March 19, 2025. Photo: AFP / Jack Guez
The Israeli military said on Wednesday (US time) that it had launched "targeted ground activities" in Gaza, partially recapturing a key area in the territory, a day after launching an aerial bombardment of the Strip that shattered the two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that its troops "began targeted ground activities in the central and southern Gaza Strip 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 the centre of the Netzarim Corridor," the military said.
Under January's ceasefire deal, Israel had withdrawn from the Netzarim Corridor, a key strip of land that splits Gaza in half, dividing the central Gaza City and northern Gaza from the southern parts of the Strip that borders Egypt.
Although Israel withdrew from the corridor, foreign military contractors have continued to man checkpoints between northern and southern Gaza.
After the truce became effective, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians filed through the corridor by foot, car and in some cases by donkeys, with many of them returning to homes that had been destroyed after 15 months of Israeli bombardment.
The renewed ground offensive came after Israel pounded Gaza with airstrikes overnight into Tuesday, killing more than 400 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, in one of the war's deadliest days.
A Palestinian girl salvages items from a damaged house near the Qrayqea family house that was destroyed in Israeli strikes at dawn in the Shujaiya district in eastern Gaza City on March 18, 2025. Photo: AFP / Omar Al-Qatta
Earlier on Wednesday, thousands descended on Israel's parliament in Jerusalem in mass anti-government protests sparked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to renew the war in Gaza, which critics say was taken to shore up his shaky coalition.
The Israeli military statement came after Defence Minister Israel Katz warned the residents of Gaza will "pay the full price" if Israeli hostages are not returned and Hamas remains able to govern in the Strip.
An Israeli official said on Tuesday that the airstrikes in Gaza were the first phase in a series of escalatory military actions aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing more hostages, marking a return to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's view that military pressure is the most effective way to secure the release of hostages.
So far, the Israeli military has brought just eight living hostages back to Israel, out of 251 taken by Hamas and its allies on October 7, 2023. The vast majority have been released as part of ceasefire deals in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
-CNN
