Israeli troops advance into Gazan territory. An infantry brigade, known as the Golani brigade, has been put on a war footing on the border with the Palestinian enclave. Early on Thursday, March 20, air defense sirens sounded in Israel, as far away as Jerusalem, because of a missile launched by Yemen's Houthis – in the end, it was intercepted outside of Israeli territory. Although the army has claimed to still have windows of opportunity to get out of the conflict, these seem to be getting slimmer and slimmer. The spiraling descent into war has begun, and it already seems unstoppable. All this took barely more than 48 hours.

After Tuesday's air strike, the ground offensive. On Wednesday, Israeli troops launched "targeted ground activities" in the enclave "in order to expand the security zone and to create a partial buffer between northern and southern Gaza," which would stretch as far as "the center of the Netzarim Corridor," the army spokesman said in a statement.

The Netzarim Corridor, named after a former Jewish settlement that was dismantled in 2005, is a strip of land Israeli forces carved out during the conflict, stretching up to 6 kilometers wide and cutting Gaza in two, isolating the enclave's north from its south. It was evacuated in February, three weeks after the start of the ceasefire, as part of the agreement negotiated between Israel and Hamas. The Israeli army moved back into it partially on Wednesday, going as far as the site of the former settlement, a strategic point located south of Gaza City.

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