The Israeli military said Sunday that it was set to begin ground operations in Deir al-Balah for the first time since the start of the war, issuing an evacuation order for Palestinians in the southwest of the city in the central Gaza Strip.
“The IDF continues to operate with great force to destroy the enemy’s capabilities and terror infrastructure in the area, as it expands its activities into an area where it has not operated before,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, said on X.
The expansion into Deir al-Balah was announced as fighting continued across the Strip, and alongside ongoing ceasefire negotiations ongoing in Qatar, where Israel has accused Hamas of dragging out its response to an Israeli proposal. On Saturday night, thousands of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv to call for the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
Deir al-Balah is one of the few places in the Strip where the military has not yet operated with ground troops because it believed Hamas to be holding hostages there, though it has conducted airstrikes in the city. Hamas has vowed to execute captives if the IDF approaches.
The IDF has avoided ground operations in areas where it believes Hamas to be holding hostages, in order not to endanger them.
“Can anyone promise us that this decision will not come at the cost of the loss of our loved ones?” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said in a statement after the announcement.
Because of the relatively light fighting in the Deir al-Balah area, refugees from other parts of Gaza have sought shelter there, and most buildings remain standing. During a ceasefire in February, Hamas released three Israeli hostages — Eli Sharabi, Or Levy, and Ohad Ben Ami — in a ceremony in Deir al-Balah that sparked outrage in Israel.
Sunday’s announcement told civilians to head south to the Mawasi area on the coast, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are already massed.
According to IDF estimates from May, some 350,000 Palestinians reside in all of central Gaza. It is unclear how many are in the newly evacuated zone.
Meanwhile, overnight, the IDF demolished Hamas infrastructure in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanoun, amid an ongoing offensive against the terror group there.
A video from the Israeli border community of Netiv Ha’asara showed a large explosions that shook the region just after 3 a.m.
Also on Sunday, the IDF said it demolished 2.7 kilometers’ (1.7 miles’) worth of tunnels in recent operations carried out by the 401st Armored Brigade in the area. The underground passages were some 20 meters (66 feet) deep, according to the military, and were destroyed by combat engineers.
The IDF said on Saturday that the Israeli Air Force struck approximately 90 targets in the Gaza Strip over the preceding day, including buildings used by terror operatives and tunnels. That day, two reserve combat engineers were seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in the south of the enclave.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reported on Saturday that 98 Palestinians were killed and 511 were wounded in the previous 48 hours. One strike killed the head of the Hamas-run police force in Nuseirat in central Gaza, and 11 of his family members.
The reported toll included dozens killed near aid distribution sites. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots at suspects who approached its troops after they did not heed calls to stop, about a kilometer away from an aid site that was not active at the time.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed group that runs the aid site, said there were no incidents or fatalities there on Saturday and that it has repeatedly warned people not to travel to its distribution points in the dark.
The war has been going on since October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel to kill some 1,200 people and kidnap 251. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF; one of them is an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 454.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 58,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged Israel and Hamas to reach a deal to free captives and end the war, and the sides have been negotiating an agreement for weeks in Qatar. Israel recently softened its position regarding where the IDF will remain deployed during a truce, and has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in response. The delay is reportedly due in part to difficulties in getting a response from the terror group’s leadership in Gaza.
On Saturday night, thousands of people gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, and then outside the US embassy’s branch office in the city, to urge the sides to reach a ceasefire and release the hostages. Protesters stood behind a large banner urging US President Donald Trump to reach a “big, beautiful deal” — a nod to the name of his recent spending bill.
Among the speakers were released hostages and their relatives. Doron Steinbrecher, who was freed during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year, addressed Trump in remarks at the earlier rally.
“We have met and spoken; I know how personally important this is to you, how deeply you are involved, and I know what you are capable of,” she said in English. “Make it happen. Let everyone emerge through the gates of hell so that we may rise.”
Noam Lehmann and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.