IDF begins renewed offensive in Gaza with operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’

The military began Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ in Gaza on Friday, the IDF announced in a statement.

The military said that it had launched several strikes and deployed forces to seize swaths of land in the Gaza Strip to renew its offensive in the enclave. 

The Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF, in cooperation with the Shin Bet, struck over 150 terror targets in Gaza on Friday.

The Air Force has attacked the Gaza Strip 60 times since Friday morning, with a bomb being heard every four minutes, Maariv reported. The IAF also targeted Beit Lahiya and Jabalya in northern Gaza with heavy airstrikes overnight on Thursday. 

Palestinian officials have claimed dozens of deaths and injuries from the Friday attacks.

Tanks began advancing toward the Al-Salateen neighbourhood in western Beit Lahia on Friday, Gazan residents told BBC News, who claimed that a number of occupied civilian homes were destroyed.

The IDF began evacuating thousands of Gazan civilians in the north of the enclave ahead of the strikes. 

“Urgent warning! To everyone in this area, whether in a shelter, a tent, or a building, you are in a dangerous combat zone, and the area is not safe! Evacuate immediately southward,” leaflets dropped in Gaza read. 

Those neighboring the Gaza border have reported hearing loud explosions on Friday, Walla reported.

The IDF has also reportedly surrounded Jabalia and the Jabalia refugee camp.

The Air Force has increased the scope of attacks in the Gaza Strip in recent days and is at an even greater pace than the attacks on the eve of the first maneuver in October 2023.

The military previously called up tens of thousands of reservists, but sources have said that the expansion would be in stages. This means that Israel could see the expanded war in Gaza lasting through the year with additional call-up orders. 

UN accuses IDF of defying international law

“This latest barrage of bombs… and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said in a statement.

“Even if, as Israel says, it was targeting Hamas command centres underground, and even if destroying these structures offered a definite military advantage at the time of the attack, it is bound by international law to ensure that constant care is taken to spare the lives of civilians, and that’s clearly not the case.”

Jeremy Laurence, a UN human rights spokesperson, added that the world “must stop the clock on this madness now.”

“The laws of war, built on the Geneva Conventions, are sacrosanct, as are the rules requiring all States, without exceptions to protect human rights, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” Laurence said. “All actors are bound to strictly respect these rules. Those who do not must be held to account.”

IDF expands war to defeat Hamas

The IDF added that the operation’s goals were to release the hostages and to defeat Hamas.

A security source told The Jerusalem Post previously that “the IDF intends to remain in any area that is conquered to prevent terrorism from returning. It will handle cleansed locations according to the Rafah model, where all threats were eliminated, and it became part of the security zone.”

The Post reported that Gideon’s Chariots could see the IDF more heavily involved in major urban areas in the Gaza Strip, which is a departure from its usual policy of conducting raids and departing. 

At the start of May, Israel warned Hamas that unless it returned 10 hostages in two weeks, the military would expand the war in Gaza. 

A source told N12 earlier this month that the war would likely continue throughout 2025 and the military was short 10,000 soldiers.

The military reportedly postponed the operation until US President Donald Trump left the Middle East after his diplomatic visit to the area.  

Amichai Stein, Yonah Jeremy Bob, Seth J. Frantzman, Avi Ashkenazi, and the Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report

JPost