Israeli airstrikes rocked Gaza on Friday and Saturday as negotiations over an new ceasefire fell apart.
The Israeli military, which spent the early weeks of the war focused on Gaza’s north, has expanded operations in the south, particularly in the vicinity of Khan Younis, the biggest city in the southern half of the territory.
Fighters in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, also fired rockets into Israel.
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The resumption of the conflict threatens to dramatically increase the death count in Gaza; local officials say that more than 15,000 people have been killed there since the fighting began in October. Gazan authorities have said the majority of the casualties have been women and children.
After the ceasefire talks fell apart this week, more than 200 people were killed between Friday and Saturday, according to local estimates cited by the Associated Press.
More than 2 million people live in Gaza, a tiny territory roughly nine times smaller than Rhode Island. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled from the north seeking to escape the violence, though the widening of the conflict zone has made it more difficult to find refuge.
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Israel has implemented initiatives it says are designed to reduce collateral damage. The military has dropped leaflets instructing civilians to flee and has divided Gaza into “hundreds of numbered sectors” to make it clear which areas are most dangerous.
But critics say that Gazans may not be able to access up-to-date information about strike sites before its too late, since internet access and electricity are unreliable.
“This is a grim game of turkey shoot,” wrote Balakrishnan Rajagopal, special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing at the United Nations, in a post to X (formerly known as Twitter). “How will the population check SMS messages about coming attacks?”
The renewed fighting is also causing stress in Israel, especially for the families of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 who worry that they are losing the chance to bargain for their loves ones’ release.
More than 100 hostages were released after the first ceasefire last month in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, though over 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza.
The hostages were seized when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel in October on multiple fronts—including on trucks, boats, and paragliders—where they launched attacks on a musical festival and Israeli villages. The Israeli government says more than 1,200 people were killed.
Israel has said the nature of those attacks justify its response in Gaza, though the country has faced mounting scrutiny over the number of Palestinian civilians dying from its strikes.
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said this week that President Biden “does not support southern operations unless or until the Israelis can show that they have accounted for all the internally displaced people of Gaza” and that it needs to factor in “the extra innocent life that is now in south Gaza,” Axios reported.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed those statements on Friday.
Israel has rebuffed pressure for a more extensive ceasefire, saying it insists on eradicating Hamas from the Gaza Strip. Observers now worry that the fighting may spread elsewhere. Israel has already engaged in significant but less-extensive clashes with Hezbollah militants near its border with Lebanon, and the fighting picked up again on Friday.
