The Israeli military on Friday night announced the start of “extensive strikes” and troop mobilization in the Gaza Strip as part of a new military operation named “Gideon’s Chariots.”
The operation aims “to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza, including the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on social media.
New strikes began on the same day that U.S. President Donald Trump concluded his four-day trip to the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Reuters, local health authorities in Gaza reported that the latest Israeli strikes killed at least 58 people overnight, bringing the death toll to over 300 since Thursday.
On Friday, Trump acknowledged his concern about the escalating conflict. “We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving,” the president said.
In the early hours of Saturday, Palestinian media reported that Israeli ground troops had advanced toward Deir al-Balah, one of the few areas in Gaza where ground troops have not yet operated in during the war.
Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that recent Israeli strikes had targeted Mohammed Sinwar, the presumed leader of Hamas in Gaza and brother of the deceased former leader, Yahya Sinwar, who planned the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Israeli intelligence believes that Sinwar was in the targeted area at the time of the attack but has no further information.
The new military operation in Gaza comes after reported differences between Israel and Trump, who did not visit Israel during his trip to the region.
Recently, Washington reached deals directly with Hamas to secure the release of an American-Israeli hostage and with the Houthi rebels in Yemen to stop U.S. strikes in exchange for an end to attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
According to NBC News, the Trump administration is working on a plan to relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya. In exchange, the U.S. would release billions of dollars of frozen funds to Libyan authorities.
Meanwhile, the newly formed U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced that it will begin distributing aid by the end of the month to the territory, which has been cut off from assistance.
On Friday, United Nations Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher urged “rapid, safe, and unimpeded” aid delivery in Gaza managed by the U.N.
“To those proposing an alternative modality for aid distribution, let’s not waste time: We already have a plan,” Fletcher said in a statement, noting that “the U.N. and [its] humanitarian partners have the expertise, resolve and moral clarity to deliver aid.”
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