Israeli Forces Begin Limited Ground Incursion in Gaza Strip

Israel said it began a limited ground operation in Gaza on Wednesday, with troops returning to some positions outside population centers and officials vowing further pressure unless Hamas releases its 59 remaining hostages. 

The ground incursion is the first since a six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas officially lapsed earlier this month and raises concerns about a return to all-out war. The move comes after Israel ended the pause in fighting early this week with airstrikes across Gaza that killed hundreds of people.

Read: Gaza Ceasefire Ends With Deadly Israeli Strikes Across Territory

Troops have retaken control of part of the Netzarim Corridor, which stretches across Gaza from east to west, “to create a partial buffer between northern and southern Gaza,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X. This allows Israel to control the movement of civilians — in the past, the army blocked them going north to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its forces there. 

It wasn’t immediately clear how many troops were moved back into Gaza. At the height of the war in late 2023 and in 2024, tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers were involved in military operations against Hamas within the Palestinian territory.

Ground forces had retreated from the bulk of positions in the Gaza Strip after the short ceasefire with the Palestinian militant group went into force in mid-January. Troops and tanks redeployed to a buffer zone just inside the enclave’s borders with Israel and Egypt, allowing Palestinians a degree of mobility between war-shattered cities and townships.

In a sign of renewed tensions across the Middle East, the IDF said Thursday it intercepted a missile launched at Israel from Yemen. The Yemen-based Houthis have vowed to ramp up their efforts to attack Israel and vessels in the Red Sea area until a ceasefire is reestablished in Gaza.

It is not clear whether the latest Israeli operation is a precursor of a wider advance into the territory’s population centers. In October 2023, days after Hamas crossed into Israel — killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 — troops were sent into Gaza for short, targeted incursions before a full ground invasion took place late that month.

Minutes before Wednesday’s operation was announced, Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a “final warning,” saying unless the hostages are released and Hamas removed from power, residents of Gaza would “soon” be evacuated again from battle zones. 

During the short truce Hamas freed some 38 hostages, most of them alive, in return for more than 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel. Now, talks on the way forward, mediated by Qatar and Egypt and overseen by the US, are at a stalemate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says renewed strikes on Gaza followed Hamas’ repeated refusal to release the remaining hostages and its rejection of proposals from the US and mediators. The Palestinian militant group — which the US and other countries designate as a terrorist organization — says Israel’s ground incursion constitutes a new, “dangerous” violation of the ceasefire agreement, according to a statement on Telegram.

In the war between Israel and Hamas more than 48,000 Gazans have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Vast stretches of the territory have been reduced to rubble.

With assistance from Dan Williams, Sherif Tarek and Fadwa Hodali.

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