CNN
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Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday a major expansion of the military’s operation in Gaza involving the seizure of large areas of land that would be “incorporated into Israel’s security zones.”
In the statement, Katz said the operation would also involve a “large-scale evacuation of Gaza’s population from combat zones,” without specifying details.
According to the statement, the military operation would expand to “crush and clear the area of terrorists and terror infrastructure, while seizing large areas that will be incorporated into Israel’s security zone.”
The Israeli military’s spokesperson for Arabic media late on Tuesday ordered residents in Gaza’s southern Rafah area to leave their homes and move north.
Last month, an Israeli official and a second source familiar with the matter told CNN that Israel was making plans for a potential major ground offensive in Gaza that would involve sending tens of thousands of troops into combat to clear and occupy large swaths of the enclave.
Katz’s statement on Wednesday did not specify whether additional Israeli troops would be involved in the expanded operation.
The announcement comes as Israel continued its aerial bombardment on the strip. At least 17 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight in southern Gaza, according to officials from Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital in Khan Younis, where the bodies were brought.
Among those killed, at least 13 people – including women and children – had been sheltering in a residential house after being displaced from the Rafah area, according to Nasser Hospital. Two others were killed in a separate strike in central Gaza, according to Al Awda Hospital, which received their bodies.
Israel resumed its offensive on Gaza two weeks ago, shattering a two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas, weeks after it imposed a complete blockade of humanitarian aid entering the enclave. It warned that its forces would maintain a permanent presence in parts of Gaza until the release of the remaining 24 hostages who are believed to still be alive.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the enclave since then and the UN has warned that food supplies are running out.
The Israeli military, led by its new and more aggressive chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, has been crafting plans for a large-scale operation in Gaza for weeks now. Such a decision could see the Israeli military occupying the territory and fighting insurgencies for years.
But a longer-term offensive in Gaza could also draw stiff resistance from the Israeli public, a majority of which has been clamoring for a hostage release deal instead of a return to war.
The families’ forum of the Israeli hostages on Wednesday said they were “horrified to wake up” to the news of the military operation being expanded.
“Instead of securing the release of the hostages through an agreement and ending the war, the Israeli government is sending more soldiers into Gaza to fight in the same places they have fought time and again,” the forum said in a statement.
The forum demanded in its statement that the “Prime Minister, the Defense Minister, and the Chief of Staff stand before the public in general and before the hostage families in particular and explain how this operation serves the goal of bringing the hostages home.”
Egypt and Qatar have intensified efforts to revive the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in recent days – with the militant group agreeing to a new Egyptian proposal on Sunday, and Israel responding with a counter-proposal on Monday.
Egypt’s proposal would see Hamas release five hostages, including the American-Israeli Edan Alexander, in exchange for a renewed ceasefire, a Hamas source told CNN. It’s similar to the proposal presented several weeks ago by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, although it is not clear whether it also includes the release of additional bodies of deceased hostages.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Mick Krever, Eyad Kourdi, Ibrahim Dahman, Mohammad al-Sawalhi and Sophie Tanno contributed to this report.