March 20 (UPI) -- Fresh Israeli airstrikes on Gaza overnight killed at least 85 Palestinians and injured 133, civil authorities in the Palestinian enclave said, as Israel doubled down on its renewed offensive by also sending in ground troops.
The deaths, including in Abasan al-Kabira just east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza where 16 people were killed, bring the number of people killed since Israel resumed military operations early Tuesday after a two-month cease-fire, to more than 500, of which 200 were children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel Defense Forces announced a new ground operation into northern Gaza on Thursday, hours after IDF troops commenced "targeted ground activities" in southern and central Gaza on Wednesday "to expand the security zone and to create a partial buffer between northern and southern Gaza."
"As part of the ground activities, the troops expanded their control further to the center of the Netzarim Corridor," the IDF said in an update on its account on X, referring to a central Israeli military security buffer that divides the north of the strip from the south.
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Palestinians who had returned to their communities during the cease-fire but were forced to flee Beit Lahiya, Shhujaya and other areas in the north under Israeli evacuation orders for makeshift tents in a disused soccer stadium in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera they faced starvation if they weren't killed first by Israeli bombs.
The escalation in the military onslaught came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned Israel's "fierce war" against Hamas in Gaza would be accompanied by "larger and stronger front" in the occupied West Bank.
Elsewhere, the IDF said it had shot down a second ballistic missile launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The military said the missile was intercepted in the early hours of Thursday before it entered Israeli airspace tripping air raid sirens across the country including in Tel Aviv, but emergency services said it had received no reports of injuries.
Claiming responsibility for the attack, the Houthis said the missile was aimed at Tel Aviv's main Ben Gurion International Airport, saying it was in reaction to Israel resuming its deadly offensive in Gaza.
The group had also vowed to retaliate, including against Israel, for U.S. airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen that began Saturday -- in what the U.S. Defense Department said was the country's largest military operation of the new Trump administration -- culminating with multiple strikes Wednesday on a Houthi stronghold in the capital, Sanaa.
In a statement posted on his Truth Social platform shortly afterward, Trump warned the Houthis they faced being "completely annihilated," and urged Iran to stop sending military and other aid to the group while the United States was in the midst of a military operation against them.
"While Iran has lessened its intensity on Military Equipment and General Support to the Houthis, they are still sending large levels of supplies. Iran must stop the sending of these supplies IMMEDIATELY," wrote Trump.
"Either way they lose, but this way they lose quickly. Tremendous damage has been inflicted upon the Houthi barbarians, and watch how it will get progressively worse. It's not even a fair fight, and never will be. They will be completely annihilated!"
