Key Points
- Israeli strikes killed at least 91 Palestinians on Thursday.
- Israel has launched a ground invasion along the Netzarim Corridor.
- Hamas said its fighters have launched rockets into Israel.
At least 91 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in airstrikes across Gaza on Thursday after Israel resumed bombing and ground operations, the enclave's health ministry said, effectively ditching a two-month-old ceasefire.
After two months of relative calm, Palestinians in Gaza were again fleeing for their lives after Israel effectively abandoned a ceasefire, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign against the militant group Hamas.
Tuesday's first day of resumed airstrikes killed more than 400 Palestinians, one of the deadliest days of the 17-month-old conflict, with scant let-up since then.
Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on residential neighbourhoods, ordering people out of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun towns in the north, the Shejaiya district in Gaza City and towns on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis in the south.
Late on Thursday, Israel's military said it had started ground operations in the Shaboura district of Gaza's southernmost city Rafah, which lies adjacent to the Egyptian border.
"War is back, displacement and death are back, will we survive this round?" said Samed Sami, 29, who fled Shejaiya to put up a tent for his family in a camp on open ground.
A day after sending tanks into central Gaza, the Israeli military said on Thursday it had also started conducting ground operations in the north of the densely populated enclave along the coastal route in Beit Lahia.
Hamas, which had not retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its fighters fired rockets into Israel.
The Israeli military said sirens sounded in the centre of the country after projectiles were launched from Gaza.
Grieving relatives of those killed in airstrikes perform funeral prayers outside the European Hospital morgue in Khan Younis. Source: Anadolu / via Getty Images
It said on Thursday that its forces had been engaged for the past 24 hours in what it described as an operation to , known as the Netzarim Corridor.
Hamas said the Israeli ground operation and the incursion into the Netzarim Corridor were a "new and dangerous violation" of the ceasefire agreement.
In a statement, it reaffirmed its commitment to the deal and called on mediators to "assume their responsibilities".
The first phase of the ceasefire ended at the start of March.
Hamas wants to follow the original deal and move to an agreed second phase, under which Israel would be required to negotiate an end to the war and withdraw its troops from Gaza, and Israeli hostages still held there would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and those held under administrative detention.
Israel has offered only a temporary extension of the truce, cut off all supplies to Gaza and said it was restarting its military campaign to force Hamas to free remaining hostages.
