The Gazans flee by extending strikes in the north, to the south, as TDI, the fights entering the “new scene”

The army said that it was entering a “new scene” to fight the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, while the troops were preparing to cut the southern city of Rafah and the war planes made large strikes across the enclave, in the midst of additional attacks.

The health authorities controlled by Hamas in the strip reported dozens killed in Israeli strikes in the previous 24 hours, including 27 people who died when three missiles struck a former school building in the Al-Tuffah district of Gaza City, although the tolls could not be confirmed.

The Israeli authorities have said that war planes had targeted “Hamas keys” in a command center used to plan and execute attacks on the Israelis and that he had taken measures to mitigate civil civil damage.

The intensification of the fighting occurred one day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the troops would size a new safety corridor which would apparently make the Rafah cup while it seeks to express pressure on Hamas, which continues to contain 59 Israeli hostages kidnapped on October 7, 2023.

“In recent days, we have progressed to a new stage in the operation,” the spokesperson for the Israeli defense forces Brig. General Effie Defrin told journalists on Thursday in his first briefing since he assumed the position earlier this week. “The plan serves the objectives of the war: to return hostages and destroy the military and governing capacities of Hamas.”

He spoke a day after the FDIs deployed a new division in the south of Gaza, bearing the number of divisions operating in the three -way band.

Defrin said that the newly extended campaign involved more than 60 air strikes to degrade Hamas’ capacities and pave the way to ground troops to move to areas north and south of the strip.

“We have expanded our activities in the south of Gaza to surround and cut the Rafah region,” he added. “Beyond that, we maintain an operational ambiguity so that we can surprise the enemy and bring important achievements.”

Thursday also saw a rocket drawn from Israel from the center of Gaza, triggering sirens in the border community of Nahal Oz. The projectile was intercepted by the air defenses, the army said.

There have been a certain number of sporadic rocket attacks from Gaza since the FDI resumed its offensive last month, after the ceasefire and the charge of liberation hostage since January has collapsed, Israel promising to take military pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. The war, which devastated the strip, was triggered when thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. Most of the victims were civilians.

The army also said Thursday that a strike one day again against a Hamas command center in the north of Jabalia de Gaza had killed at least four agents, including a terrorist who participated in the October 7 assault and another Palestinian involved in the liberation ceremony of the hostage soldier Agam Berger. Two members of Hamas involved in the launch of rockets were also killed, said the army.

The Palestinians had pointed out that 19 people had been killed and said the site was a clinic led by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees.

According to Defrin, since the resumption of battles in Gaza on March 18, Israel reached more than 600 targets in the strip and killed more than 250 terrorist agents, including 12 senior officials of the Hamas and Politburo military wing.

“These are all terrorists and participated in the October 7 massacre,” he said about senior officials.

Following the rocket fire on Thursday, which was claimed by the Islamic terrorist group of Jihad, the FDI warned the residents of several districts of Gaza City to flee, saying that it issued a “final warning” before the strikes.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of residents broadcast from the suburbs of Gaza City from Shejaiya after Israel warned civilians to evacuate before the strikes. Some were seen bearing their personal effects while they were walking, while others were on donkey carts and bikes or in van.

Throughout the war, the FDI has issued evacuation orders for various fields, advising residents to head towards safe areas to avoid being taken in the fighting. Israel accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields by integrating its fighters among the population.

The Palestinians said that the people of Rafah who tried to leave the city on Thursday were hampered by Israeli strikes along the west coastal road connecting Rafah to Khan Younis, where many displaced gazans have already moved. Most Gazans had already fled the city when Israel resumed its campaign last month.

Rafah “left, he is wiped,” said a father of seven children who fled Rafah to Khan Younis in Reuters via a cat application.

“They overthrow what remains of houses and property,” said the man, who refused to be identified for fear of the repercussions.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel “changed gears” in Gaza and grabbed a earth belt known as “Morag Corridor”, reducing access between Rafah and the city of Khan Younis to the north. This decision will essentially isolate Rafah, which is delimited to the south by the road to Philadelphi controlled by Israel along the border of Gaza-Egypt.

Israel has also reaffirmed control of the netzarim corridor, which separates the northern third of Gaza from the rest of the narrow strip.

“We are now cutting the band and we increase the pressure step by step … so that they give us our hostages. The more they refuse to abandon them, the more the pressure will increase until they do it,” said Netanyahu.

Hamas said that it would only release the 59 remaining hostages – of which 24 are considered alive – in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a permanent ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. The group rejected the requirements to lay their arms or leave the territory.

Health officials controlled by Hamas said Thursday that 1,163 people had been killed in Palestinian territory since Israel took over large -scale strikes, taking stock of the war at 50,523. The toll did not make the difference between fighters and civilians. Israel says he killed at least 20,000 fighters and 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.