Israeli troops seize more land in Gaza as mass evacuations of Palestinians continue
At least 19 people, including children, killed in Israeli strike at UN clinic-turned-shelter: Health Ministry
Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by a large-scale evacuation of the population.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops were seizing an area he called the "Morag Axis," a reference to a former Israeli settlement once located in an area between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, some three to four kilometres from the southern border.
"Because we are now dividing the Strip and we are increasing pressure step by step so they will give us our hostages," he said in a video message.
Netanyahu said the move, which would cut off Rafah from Khan Younis, would give Israel control of a second axis in southern Gaza in addition to the "Philadelphi Corridor," running along the border with Egypt, which Israel sees as a key line preventing the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
Separately, the Israeli military said troops had completed the encirclement of the Tel al-Sultan area near Rafah and killed dozens of militants. It said it had also found two rockets, as well as a launcher aimed at Israeli territory.
But there was no sign of an end to the operation and the head of the Israeli military, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said it would continue "at a deliberate and determined pace."
"The only thing that can halt our further advance is the release of our hostages."
Earlier on Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that troops would be expanding their operation in Gaza to clear out militants and infrastructure "and seize large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel."
The Israeli military had already issued evacuation warnings to Gazans living around the southern city of Rafah and toward the city of Khan Younis, telling them to move to the Al-Mawasi area on the shore, previously designated a humanitarian zone.
At least 60 killed in Israeli strikes
Gaza's Health Ministry said at least 60 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, with 19 people, including children, killed in a strike at a United Nations clinic being used to house displaced people.
Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, said the site was sheltering about 735 people who are part of 160 families staying there.
Despite UNRWA staff warning of the dangers of being in the facility after Wednesday's attack, many displaced families haven't left the site, "simply because they have absolutely nowhere else to go," Touma said.
Israel's military said it had struck a building previously used as a clinic that it believed was serving as a Hamas command and control centre to plan attacks, but it did not provide any evidence.
The military added that it had used surveillance to mitigate the risk to civilians. Hamas denied using the building and called the Israeli accusation a "blatant fabrication."
Women, 3-month-old among latest killed in strikes
Video of the aftermath of the strike showed blood on a floor as rescue workers removed bodies on stretchers.
At the site of a strike in Khan Younis, Hanan Fares, 40, wept as she looked at the remnants of the building that collapsed and killed her brother, sister-in-law and nephew.
"He's gone. My brother, he's gone," Fares said. "My brother has nothing to do with anything. He was an employee with the Bank of Palestine."
Rida al-Jabbour held up a tiny shoe and pointed at a blood-spattered wall as she related how a neighbour had been killed along with her three-month-old baby.
"From the moment the strike occurred, we have not been able to sit or sleep or anything," she said, describing how rescue workers were unable to separate the remains of those killed.
Reham Abu Qaoud, 28, said 10 members of her family were killed in the strike, including a cousin who was two months' pregnant.
"All of a sudden, they're gone. What did they do? They are all civilians," Qaoud told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife as she sat next to their bodies wrapped in white shroud.
Israel plans to facilitate voluntary departure
The statement by Katz, Israel's defence minister, did not make clear how much land Israel intended to seize or whether the move represented a permanent annexation of territory, which would add further pressure on a population already living in one of the most crowded areas in the world.
According to the Israeli rights group Gisha, the government has already taken control of some 62 square kilometres, or about 17 per cent, of the total area of Gaza as part of a buffer zone around the edges of the enclave.
At the same time, Israeli leaders have said they plan to facilitate the voluntary departure of Palestinians from the enclave, after U.S. President Donald Trump called for it to be permanently evacuated and redeveloped as a coastal resort under U.S. control.
Israeli leaders have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, the militant group that has controlled the enclave since 2007, and the expanded operation appeared at least partly aimed at increasing civilian pressure on its leaders.
"I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to eliminate Hamas and return all the kidnapped," Katz said in his statement. "This is the only way to end the war."
War expands
Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza last month and sent ground troops back in, after two months of relative calm following the conclusion of a U.S.-backed truce to allow the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since the resumption of the strikes, and Israel has also cut off aid to the enclave, saying much of it was taken by Hamas.
Efforts led by Qatari and Egyptian mediators to get talks aimed at ending the war back on track have so far failed to make progress, and the military's return to Gaza has fuelled protests in Israel by families and supporters of some of the hostages.
As the operation in Gaza has escalated, Israel has also hit targets in southern Lebanon and Syria, with a strike on a Hezbollah commander in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday that further strained fraying ceasefire agreements that largely halted fighting in January.
Israel invaded Gaza following an attack on southern Israel by thousands of Hamas-led gunmen that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, and ravaged the Gaza Strip, forcing almost the entire population of 2.3 million from their homes.
With files from CBC's Mohamed El Saife and The Associated Press