Israeli military says it has launched first stages of major offensive in Gaza, same day Trump leaves region with no deal
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/16/middleeast/gideons-chariots-israel-new-gaza-offensive-latam-intl
The Israeli military says it has launched the first stages of a new major offensive in Gaza, in a development that comes on the same day that US President Donald Trump concluded his visit to the region without securing a ceasefire deal.
In a statement late Friday, the Israel Defense Forces said it launched “extensive attacks and mobilized forces to seize strategic areas in the Gaza Strip, as part of the opening moves of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ and the expansion of the campaign in Gaza, to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza, including the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”
The development comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that the population of Gaza would be displaced to the south following his security cabinet’s approval of an expanded military operation that one minister described as a plan to “conquer” the territory.
Israeli forces kill grandfather and two grandchildren as they tried to flee Khan Younis
In two separate attacks, the Israeli military killed eight Palestinians. One attack on a group where five people were killed by drone strikes and, in an earlier attack, a grandfather along with two of his grandchildren were killed inside a vehicle that was driving as they were evacuating the eastern part of Khan Younis.
According to the Israeli narrative, this is Hamas infrastructure but a close look at these targets one would easily find out that these are residential homes, temporary shelters, tents and public facilities that have been turned into shelters for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians right after the Israeli military destroyed many of the residential homes in the northern part of the Strip in the past 19 months.
Injured Palestinian children receive medical treatment at Nasser Hospital after Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on May 16
Israeli military drone bombs tent near Khan Younis
An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent in Gaza now reports that an Israeli military drone has bombed another tent housing displaced people west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, causing injuries.
Gaza hospital runs out of shrouds for ‘proper burial’ of the dead
Hospitals are overwhelmed with the large influx of injured Palestinians arriving to the hospital in the early hours of this morning and throughout the day.
There are no shrouds available inside hospitals and that makes it very difficult for surviving family members to offer a proper burial for their family members and loved ones who were killed in these attacks.
We could clearly hear the loud sound of explosions coming from the eastern part of Gaza City, particularly from Shujayea and Zeitoun neighbourhoods, where the Israeli military, for the past weeks, have been conducting these systematic home demolitions.
In the eastern part of the city … the entire area has been turned into vast fields of rubble and destruction.
