Israel expanding Gaza offensive, seizes key corridor
Israel issued an evacuation order for residents of Khan Yunis and announced that its troops had seized a key corridor in the southern Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Hamas declared that it expects "real progress" in the talks planned in Cairo, Egypt, between a delegation from the terrorist group and Egyptian mediators with a view to a new truce in Gaza.
After a two-month truce, Israel resumed its bombing and, shortly afterward, its ground operations in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that increasing military pressure is the only way to force Hamas to release the hostages.
"Soon, IDF (Israel Defense Forces) operations will intensify and expand to other areas in most of Gaza, and they will have to evacuate combat zones," Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said, addressing Gazans. He also announced that Israeli troops had completed the capture of the key Morag corridor, which separates the towns of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, and Khan Yunis.
The Israeli army then asked the residents of Khan Yunis to evacuate, in anticipation of a retaliatory operation for the rocket fire from southern Gaza into Israel.
The war in Gaza erupted on October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,218 people, according to official figures. Islamist militants also kidnapped 251 people, 58 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.
Hamas delegation in Cairo
The Hamas-ruled Gaza Health Ministry announced that at least 1,563 Palestinians have been killed since March 18, bringing the total death toll in the territory to 50,933 since the start of the Israeli offensive in retaliation for the October 7, 2023, attack.
Earlier, a Hamas official announced talks on Saturday in Cairo between a Hamas delegation led by the movement's chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, and Egyptian mediators.
"We hope the meeting will lead to real progress toward an agreement that ends the war and aggression and guarantees the complete withdrawal of the occupying forces from Gaza," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. According to him, Hamas has not received any new truce proposals, despite Israeli media reports that Egypt and Israel had exchanged draft documents related to a ceasefire agreement and the release of the hostages.
"But contacts and talks with mediators continue," he declared. According to the Times of Israel, the Egyptian proposal provides for the return to Israel of 16 hostages—eight alive and eight dead—in exchange for a 40- to 70-day truce and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.
US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was quoted by the Israeli press as saying that "a very serious agreement is taking shape; it's a matter of days."
New bombings
A truce brokered by the United States, Egypt, and Qatar, effective from January 19 to March 17, allowed for the return of 33 hostages, including eight who died, in exchange for Israel's release of some 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.
"Every day of delay (in concluding an agreement) means more deaths of defenseless Palestinian civilians and an unknown fate" for the hostages, Hamas said in a statement.
The local Civil Defense reported on Saturday that one person was killed and several were injured in an Israeli airstrike west of Khan Yunis. Four other people were buried the same day after an Israeli attack on their home in eastern Gaza City, according to AFP footage.