Violent explosions and artillery fire
Israel begins new major offensive in the Gaza Strip
Updated on May 17th, 2025 – 10:32 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Israel started a new offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night. Media report explosions in the north of the Palestinian area.
The Israeli army (IDF) claims that the new major offensive in the Gaza Strip began. The military announced that at night. Over the past day, the army has started to “carry out extensive attacks and mobilize troops in order to obtain operational control in areas of the Gaza Strip”. The now ongoing military operation under the name “Gideon’s Chariot” is the prelude to “achieving the war goals” – including the release of hostages and the destruction of the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas.
The Air Force has attacked the Gaza Strip 60 times since Friday morning, whereby a bomb could be heard every four minutes, the Israeli portal Maariv reported. The Air Force has increased the scope of its attacks in the Gaza Strip in the past few days.
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The Israeli news page “Ynet” reported on the night on sources in the Gaza Strip of new violent explosions in the north of the sealed coastal area. To the east of the city of Gaza there are reports on artillery shot through the Israeli army, it said. Accordingly, residential buildings are bombarded.
According to Palestinian health facilities, 58 people have been killed in Israeli attacks. Many victims are buried under rubble, the situation in the hospital is catastrophic. According to Palestinian information, more than 300 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since Thursday.
The Israeli government had recently announced that they wanted to expand military use in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media had reported that this should happen after the end of the Middle East trip by US President Donald Trump if no new Gaza agreement should be achieved until then. Trump has now ended his visit to the Golf region lasting several days. A new deal for Gaza is still not in sight.
In the past few days, the IDF had already started extensive attacks and the mobilization of troops to get control of the areas in the Gaza Strip.
“This is part of the preparations for the expansion of the operations and to achieve the war goals – including the release of hostages and the destruction of the terrorist organization Hamas,” said the army.
According to the health authority in Gaza controlled by the Hamas, around 100 people recently died in the attacks of the Israeli army. The information that did not distinguish between fighters and civilians could initially not be checked independently. Referring to security officers, “Ynet” had reported that the attacks were prepared for the invasion of further troops.
The head of the UN human rights office condemned Israel’s new offensive with drastic words. “It looks like an advance for a permanent population shift in Gaza, which disregarded international law and is equivalent to ethnic cleaning,” said Hochkommissar Volker Türk in Geneva. The bombings would have led to further displacements.
Israel’s new military offensive is likely to further tighten the emergency of the Palestinian population of the densely populated and, after more than one and a half years of war, gaza stripes. The UN and aid organizations are already warning of a famine. Since the beginning of March, Israel no longer has any help in the Gaza Strip. It accuses Hamas to resell her to finance your fighters and weapons.
Israel’s security cabinet recently decided to allow deliveries to Gaza again in the future, but with a different mechanism, so that Hamas cannot benefit from it. According to reports, goods should only be distributed by a few locations. The UN criticism of this: civilians could get into the crossfire on the way to these distribution centers.
“Gaza is a hideous place,” said US President Trump to the US broadcaster Fox News and again claimed the coastal area. It should be a “freedom zone”, he said. In early February, Trump had already said that the USA could take over Gaza, rebuild and transform it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”. The more than two million Palestinian residents would have to be resettled.
He assumes that more than half of the population would leave the Gaza strip if there were any exit options, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently. Israel is currently working on winning third countries for the admission of people. According to experts, a forced relocation would violate international law.
Since the beginning of the war more than a year and a half ago, according to the health authority controlled by the Hamas, more than 53,100 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip. The war was triggered by the attack by Hamas and other Islamist terrorists to Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were delayed as hostages into the Gaza strips.
