Israel sends in ground forces to take Gaza corridor as airstrike toll mounts

Israeli forces have launched a "limited ground operation" to retake the Netzarim corridor, a newly widened road protected by fortified bunkers that divides Gaza and is seen as essential to controlling the devastated Palestinian territory.

- Jason Burke

The move is a significant escalation of Israel's new offensive in Gaza and came less than 36 hours after a massive wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400 people, including 183 children and 94 women, the health ministry there said. Zaher al-Waheidi, the head of the ministry's records department, described those attacks as the deadliest day in Gaza since the start of the war.

More Israeli strikes yesterday killed about 20, bringing the death toll to 436 in 48 hours, a spokesperson for Gaza's civil defence service said. Among the new casualties was a UN staff member, who was killed when two UN guesthouses in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza were hit in an attack. The UN has called for an investigation.

"The locations of all UN premises are known to the parties to the conflict, who are bound by international law to protect them and maintain their absolute inviolability," said a spokesperson for Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general.

The Israel Defense Forces denied hitting a UN building, saying "there was no IDF operational activity" in the area of the UN compound and "the IDF didn't strike" it.