IDF says it has begun ‘broad’ ground operations as it expands new Gaza offensive

The Israel Defense Force announced Sunday that it has begun “broad” ground operations in several areas of the Gaza Strip, as part of the opening phase of a new major offensive. Palestinian officials reported more than 100 people killed over the past 24 hours in Israeli strikes.

“Over the past day, IDF troops in the Southern Command, both the standing army and reserves, began a broad ground operation throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip, as part of the start of Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” the military said in a statement.

Visiting Gaza on Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that the military would press forward with the offensive, but at the same time allow flexibility in order not to torpedo talks for a hostage deal that are ongoing in Qatar.

“The directive is clear: Defeat the enemy and destroy its infrastructure wherever we operate,” Zamir said, adding that “the IDF will allow flexibility for the political echelon to advance any hostage deal.”

“A hostage deal — this is not a halt; it is an achievement,” Zamir stressed. “We are working toward it.”

IDF spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, in a press statement from the Gaza border, said five divisions are now operating inside the Strip.

“We are entering a new stage in the fighting. During the operation, we will increase and expand our operational control in Gaza, while bisecting the Strip and moving the population for its safety in all the areas where we operate,” he said.

Defrin said the IDF has implemented lessons learned from the fighting in Gaza thus far.

“Unlike before, we are now focusing on the offensive effort in the Gaza Strip…until the defeat [of Hamas] in the areas where we operate,” he said.

Defrin added that the IDF is doing “everything” to prevent harm to the hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza during the new offensive against the terror group.

“The fighting is being conducted in full coordination with the [military’s] Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters [unit]. We are doing everything to prevent harm to the hostages. They are always top of mind,” he said.

“We are moving forward, and the only thing that can stop us is the return of our hostages,” Defrin said.

He also justified the IDF’s vague public statements on its operations in Gaza, saying: “Ambiguity is a tool. We won’t share our plans with Hamas. They will see actions on the ground.”

The IDF said that over the past week, the Israeli Air Force struck over 670 Hamas targets in Gaza “in order to disrupt the enemy’s preparations and assist the ground operation.”

The targets included weapons depots, cells of terror operatives, tunnels and anti-tank launch sites, the army said.

So far, the IDF says troops have killed “dozens of terrorists” and destroyed terrorist infrastructure above and below ground, “and are now holding strategic areas in the Strip.”

Hospitals and medics in Gaza said that Israeli strikes across the Strip killed at least 103 people overnight and into Sunday, bringing the toll in the Strip to more than 400 in the past week.

More than 48 people were killed in airstrikes in and around the southern city of Khan Younis, some of which hit houses and tents sheltering displaced people, according to Nasser Hospital.

In northern Gaza, a strike on a home in the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp killed nine people from a single family, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry’s emergency services. Another strike on a family’s residence, also in Jabaliya, killed 10, including seven children and a woman, according to the civil defense, which operates under the Hamas-run government.

Several fatalities were also reported from strikes in central Gaza.

The figures and nature of the casualties could not be independently verified, and Hamas does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its casualty figures.

Israel blames civilian casualties on Hamas because the terror group is deeply embedded among civilians, including in hospitals, schools and camps for the displaced, in addition to building its tunnel network under civilian areas.

The bloodshed comes as Israel ramps up its war against Hamas with a new offensive named “Gideon’s Chariots.” According to Israeli officials, the wide operation aims to see the IDF conquer Gaza and retain the territory, attack Hamas, prevent the terror group from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies, and move Palestinians from Gaza’s north to its south.

The Hamas-run health ministry said that all public hospitals in the north of the territory were “out of service” after Israeli forces besieged the Indonesian Hospital.

“The Israeli occupation has intensified its siege with heavy fire around the Indonesian hospital and its surroundings, preventing the arrival of patients, medical staff, and supplies — effectively forcing the hospital out of service,” the ministry said.

“All public hospitals in the North Gaza governorate are now out of service,” it added.

Footage from the Indonesian Hospital showed patients being evacuated on hospital beds and wheelchairs.

According to reports from Gaza, the patients were transferred to a nearby hospital, Kamal Adwan, also in Beit Lahiya, after Israeli forces reportedly surrounded the hospital and opened fire at it.

The IDF has not yet responded to the reports.

إخلاء عدد من المصابين من المستشفى الإندونيسي إلى مستشفى كمال عدوان بعد محاصرة الجيش الإسرائيلي له من خلال مسيرات الكواد كابتر#غزة#الحدث pic.twitter.com/BUQ96AfRlo

— ا لـحـدث (@AlHadath) May 18, 2025

The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led several thousands of terrorists to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others.

Israel previously said the new plan is meant to ramp up pressure on Hamas to agree to a temporary ceasefire on Israel’s terms — one that would free Israeli hostages held in Gaza but wouldn’t necessarily end the war. Hamas says it wants a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a pathway to ending the war as part of any new ceasefire deal.

Hostage talks were ongoing in Qatar with the military poised to dramatically expand fighting should they fail.

Zones of control

According to a report in London’s Sunday Times, the IDF plans to move civilians in Gaza into three strips of land separated and bookended by four zones controlled by the military if a ceasefire is not reached in the coming days.

The British news outlet said it has seen a map that was leaked by diplomats who were briefed on the proposal.

???? The British Sunday Times publishes a map of the next stage from Israel's perspective in Gaza:

In red are areas militarily controlled by the IDF.

In blue are areas where there is a Gaza civilian population.

According to the map, Israel will act as follows:

1. Take… pic.twitter.com/7mHi49Qgbn

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) May 18, 2025

According to the report, the map shows military areas in the north, center, and south of the Palestinian enclave, with civilian zones sandwiched in between.

The veracity of the map was neither confirmed nor denied by the IDF to the newspaper.

The report said foreign companies assigned to distribute and manage humanitarian support, which were also briefed on the plan, said that if implemented, it would prevent the free movement of Palestinians between different areas of Gaza.

The map also showed up to 12 locations that appear to be distribution points for humanitarian aid.

In an attempt to get around the Hamas terror group, which Israel says has been seizing humanitarian aid meant for civilians, Israeli officials have been closely involved in the establishment of a new organization called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), advancing a new initiative where aid will only be distributed from a small number of sites in southern Gaza that are secured by American contractors.

Aid organizations currently operating in Gaza have come out strongly against the GHF plan, arguing that it violates humanitarian principles, forces mass displacement of Palestinians who aren’t currently living near the humanitarian zone, ignores vulnerable populations, and doesn’t adequately address the humanitarian crisis.

Aid hasn’t entered Gaza since March 1, with Israel arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas had been stealing much of that aid. In recent weeks, though, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the political echelon that the enclave is on the brink of starvation.

Sinwar brothers said dead

Media outlets in Gaza reported that Zakaria Sinwar, the brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and of de facto Hamas leader in Gaza, Muhammad Sinwar, was killed Saturday night in an airstrike in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip.

According to the reports, he was killed along with three of his children in a strike on the tent where they were residing.

Sinwar had worked as a lecturer at the Islamic University in Gaza.

The reports come shortly after Saudi outlet Al-Hadath said that Muhammad Sinwar’s body was found in a Khan Younis tunnel targeted by Israeli airstrikes last week.

According to the report, the bodies of 10 of Sinwar’s aides were found with him.

It is also reported that there is evidence that the commander of the Rafah Brigade in Hamas’s military wing, Mohammad Shabana, was killed in the strike.

Israel has not confirmed the deaths of either Sinwar or Shabana.

The strikes on Tuesday targeted an underground command compound below the European Hospital where Sinwar was believed to be sheltering. The IDF later bombed the area several more times, in an apparent attempt to prevent anyone from approaching the tunnel.

Most of Hamas’s leadership has been eliminated by Israel during the ongoing war.