Israeli troops begin limited ground incursion in Gaza

Alisa Odenheimer and Paul Wallace, Bloomberg News on Mar 19, 2025

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JERSUALEM — 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 remaining hostages.

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

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 movement to the north to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its forces there.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many troops were involved in the operation Wednesday. At its height tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers were involved in military operations against Hamas.

Ground forces had retreated from the bulk of positions in the Gaza Strip after the short ceasefire with Palestinian militant group Hamas went into force, in 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.

It is not clear whether the operation is a precursor of a wider advance into population centers in Gaza. 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 eventually took place.

Minutes before Wednesday’s operation was announced, defense minister Israel Katz issued what he said was a “final warning”, saying unless hostages are released, and Hamas removed, 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. Talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt and overseen by the U.S. between the warring parties are at a stalemate on the way forward.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says renewed strikes on Gaza followed Hamas’ repeated refusal to release the remaining 59 hostages, and its rejection of proposals from the U.S. and mediators. The Palestinian militant group — which the U.S. and other countries designate as terrorist — says Israel’s ground incursion into Gaza 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 were reduced to rubble as Israel sought to eradicate the group.

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(With assistance from Dan Williams, Sherif Tarek and Galit Altstein.)

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