IDF expands ground offensive in Gaza as PM Netanyahu says ceasefire negotiations continue in Qatar

Israel Defense Forces significantly expanded its ground operations in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the military said, while negotiations for a new ceasefire with Hamas continued in Qatar but didn’t see a breakthrough.

“Over the past day, IDF troops under the Southern Command – including both active duty and reservists, have begun extensive ground operations throughout the northern and southern Gaza Strip as part of ‘Gideon’s Chariots,'” the IDF said.

IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Effie Defrin said that five divisions were taking part in the offensive: “We will expand operational control in the Gaza Strip while dissecting the Strip and evacuating the population in all the places where we operate,” he said in a televised statement.

“Unlike before, we are now concentrating an offensive effort in the Gaza Strip – until victory. Now the threat is being realized.”

Defrin stressed that the fighting is conducted “in full coordination with the Hostages and Missing Persons Command – everything is being done to prevent harm to the hostages.”

Responding to reporters after the statement, Defrin emphasized that contrary to previous operations, the IDF would hold the territory it captures and not allow Hamas “to return to the places it used to return to in the past.”

Defrin did not specify where in the Gaza Strip IDF troops are advancing. However, Palestinian reports suggest the main thrusts were aimed at Jabaliya in the north and Khan Younis in the south.

The operation had begun with intensified aerial bombardment and limited ground incursions the day before.

The IDF stated that in preparatory airstrikes over the past days, some 670 Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip were hit “to disrupt enemy preparations and support ground operations. Among the targets struck were weapon storage facilities, underground terrorist infrastructure sites, anti-tank missile launchers as well as terrorists.”

“Thus far, the troops eliminated dozens of terrorists, dismantled terrorist infrastructure sites above and below ground, and are currently being deployed in key positions within the Gaza Strip,” the IDF added.

Hamas-affiliated medical sources told Al Jazeera that 140 people killed in Israeli strikes only on Sunday, 69 of them in Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip.

In the afternoon, Hamas responded to the Israeli offensive by launching two rockets at the area of Kibbutz Kissufim, on the Gaza border. The IDF said that one of the rockets was intercepted while the second struck an open area, causing no injuries.

Hours later, the IDF called on residents of central Gaza, from where the rockets were launched, to evacuate ahead of incoming airstrikes in the area.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir visited the soldiers in the field and conducted a situation assessment in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday.

“We will continue until we break the enemy’s combat capability, until we defeat it wherever we operate. We cannot return to October 7. There are two main goals before our eyes: the return of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” Zamir said.

“The IDF will allow flexibility to the political echelon to promote any hostage deal. A hostage deal is not a pause, it is an achievement. We are working toward this,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed in a statement on Sunday that the Israeli negotiation team continues the talks in Doha “to exhaust every possibility for a deal – whether according to the Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting, which would include the release of all hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Strip.”

This was the first time Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged the possibility that a ceasefire deal could lead to an end to the war, however, while insisting on the release of all hostages and the end of Hamas’s control over Gaza.