Israel launches new ‘limited ground invasion’ of Gaza amid deadly bombardment
Israel says it has launched a “limited ground operation” to retake part of a key corridor in Gaza.
The move appeared to deepen a renewed Israeli offensive that shattered a ceasefire with Hamas that had begun in January.
As part of the ceasefire, Israel had withdrawn from the Netzarim corridor, which bisected northern Gaza from the south and had been used by Israeli forces as a military zone.
A map showing the Netzarim corridor
It came as an international United Nations worker from Bulgaria was killed and five others seriously wounded in a strike on a UN guesthouse in the Gaza Strip.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the UN Office for Project Services, declined to say who carried out the strike that killed the worker in the central city of Deir al Balah but said the explosive ordnance was “dropped or fired” and the blast was not accidental or related to demining activity.
The UN body, known as UNOPS, carries out infrastructure and development projects around the world.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We didn’t expect a bomb to fall on us again’
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which has carried out a massive series of airstrikes throughout Gaza since early on Tuesday, denied earlier reports that it had targeted the UN compound.
But Mr Moreira da Silva said strikes had hit near the compound on Monday and struck it directly on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, when the worker was killed.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Why is Israel bombing Gaza?
He said the agency had contacted the IDF after the first strike and confirmed that it was aware of the facility’s location. The UN’s secretary general Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply saddened” by the staff member’s death and condemned attacks on UN personnel.
The war in Gaza has been among the deadliest conflicts ever for humanitarian workers, according to the UN.
Israeli troops in southern Gaza. Pic: IDF handout
Pic: IDF handout
At least 436 people, including 183 children and 94 women, have been killed since Israel launched the fresh wave of strikes, the Gaza health ministry said.
The IDF claims it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas. Gaza’s health ministry records do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Palestinians fleeing their homes after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for several neighbourhoods. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it had overnight attacked a Hamas military site from which the militant group planned to launch strikes into Israel.
The IDF targeted the site in northern Gaza as it was where “preparations were being made to fire projectiles at Israeli territory”, the military said in a statement.
Read more:
Teen brother and sister among Palestinians killed by Israel
What happened to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire
The Israeli navy also struck several vessels in the coastal area of Gaza as they were intended to be used for “terrorist activities”, the IDF claimed.
Israel issued fresh evacuation orders on Wednesday for different areas across the Gaza Strip and told people to move to known shelters in Khan Younis and western Gaza City.
Palestinians search for their belongings among the rubble of their destroyed homes, following Israeli airstrikes on Khan Yunis. Pic: AP
The latest strikes come weeks after the end of the first phase of the ceasefire, during which Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages for prisoners and were set to negotiate an extension to the truce that was meant to bring about an eventual end to the war. But those negotiations never got off the ground.
Hamas has demanded that Israel stick to the terms of the initial ceasefire deal, including a full withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.
Israel, which has vowed to defeat Hamas, has put forward a new proposal that would extend the truce and free more hostages held by Hamas, without a commitment to end the war.
During the ceasefire period, 33 hostages were released, along with nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.
There are 59 hostages still in captivity, of whom Israel believes 35 are dead.
More than one million people risked being left without food parcels in March if aid was not allowed into Gaza, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the Food Security Sector as saying.
The war, sparked by Hamas’ 7 October 2023 killing of 1,200 people and capture of 250 more in southern Israel, has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in the Strip, Gazan health officials say.
Israel has said 24 hostages are alive in Gaza – after Donald Trump said there were 21.
The US president told reporters on Tuesday that three more hostages held by Hamas in Gaza had died – alarming their families.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for hostage issues, said the Palestinian militant group was holding 59 hostages of whom 24 were alive and 35 dead – figures unchanged since before Mr Trump‘s comments.
He said 54 of the 59 were Israeli citizens and five of them were foreign nationals.
“All families of the kidnapped are always updated with the information we have about their loved ones,” he said.
The group representing the families of hostages had asked the Israeli government to share any new information with them immediately following Mr Trump’s comments.
It argues that Israel should stop the fighting and negotiate the release of the remaining hostages.
“This is the most urgent and important national mission,” it said on a post on X.
Most of the hostages returned alive to Israel so far have been released as part of deals with Hamas during two temporary ceasefires in late 2023 and early 2025.
The most recent ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners fell apart in March.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Hamas took 251 hostages in its attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 in which it killed 1,200 people.
Israel has responded with an air and ground assault on Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the war. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel says its two war aims are to destroy Hamas and release the hostages.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Israel announces plans for Gaza
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion of its offensive on Gaza – increasing its hold on the territory, for an indefinite amount of time.
The plan includes seizing Gaza, holding on to captured territories, forcibly displacing Palestinians to southern Gaza and taking control of aid distribution along with private security companies.
Pakistan says it has been targeted in a missile attack by India.
Three missiles were fired by India across the border into Pakistani-controlled territory, said Pakistani security officials.
They hit locations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and in the country’s eastern Punjab province, according to officials.
The Indian defence ministry said it had launched Operation Sindoor as it struck “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir “from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed”.
It said a total of nine sites were targeted.
A Pakistan military spokesman said the country will respond to the attacks.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours have been escalating following a militant gun attack in the disputed area of Kashmir last month.
At least 26 people, most of whom were Indian tourists, were shot dead by gunmen at a beauty spot near the resort town of Pahalgam in the Indian-controlled part of the region on 22 April.
India described the massacre as a “terror attack” and said it had “cross border” links, blaming Pakistan for backing it.
Pakistan denied any connection to the atrocity, which was claimed by a previously unknown militant group called the Kashmir Resistance.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
24 April: Pakistani minister warns ‘all-out war’ possible
Since the attack, Pakistan’s military has been on high alert after a cabinet minister said Islamabad had credible intelligence indicating that India could attack.
And Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif told Sky News’ The World With Yalda Hakim that the world should be “worried” about the prospect of a full-scale conflict involving the two nations.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
Friedrich Merz has become Germany’s new chancellor after winning a second vote in the country’s parliament.
He unexpectedly failed in the first parliamentary ballot on Tuesday morning – the first time a chancellor has failed to be elected at the first attempt since the Second World War.
Initially, needing a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in a secret ballot, he received 310 – falling short by just six votes. On the second ballot he managed 325.
It means Mr Merz, the leader of the country’s CDU/CSU conservatives, has become the 10th chancellor since the end of the Second World War.
Friedrich Merz during his swearing in ceremony. Pic: Reuters
He had been expected to win comfortably after securing a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
It meant at least 18 coalition MPs failed to back him in the first round of voting.
Announcing the second vote, Jens Spahn, the head of the Union bloc in parliament, said: “The whole of Europe, perhaps even the whole world, is watching this second round of elections.”
Earlier, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, said on X that Mr Merz’s failure to secure a majority in the first round showed the “weak foundation” on which his coalition was built, adding that it had been “voted out by the voters”.
Mr Merz, 69, succeeds Olaf Scholz and has vowed to prioritise European unity and the continent’s security.
Mr Merz (R) shakes hands with outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz (L). Pic: Reuters
His in-tray includes the Ukraine war and global tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent congratulations to Mr Merz and wished him “every success”.
The Ukrainian president added that the future of Europe was “at stake” and security will “depend on our unity”.
Mr Merz will also have to decide what to do about the AfD, which mainstream parties have refused to work with.
A “firewall” against collaborating with strongly right-wing parties has been in place since the end of the war.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
During federal elections in late February, the AfD scored its best-ever result while Olaf Scholz’s SPD dropped to about 16%.
The AfD is the second largest party in the lower house of the Bundestag and was officially designated as extremist last week by Germany’s domestic spy agency.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway