By Uche Onyeali
Resumed airstrikes and ground operations by Israeli forces yesterday left no fewer than 91 Palestinians dead with dozens wounded across the Gaza Strip.
The resumed bombardment came after two months of relative peace, following a ceasefire agreement brokered by some world leaders between the Israeli government and and the Palestinian militant group, Hamas.
Gazans were again fleeing for their lives after Israel decided abandon the truce, launching a new all-out air and ground campaign
Israeli aircraft reportedly dropped leaflets on residential neighbourhoods, ordering people out of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns in the north, the Shejaia district in Gaza City and towns on the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis in the south.
According to 29-year-old Samed Sami, who fled Shejaia to put up a tent for his family in a camp on open ground, “War is back, displacement and death are back, will we survive this round?”
Israeli military, a day after sending tanks into central Gaza, said it had also begun conducting ground operations in the north of the enclave, along the coastal route in Beit Lahiya.
Hamas, which had not retaliated during the first 48 hours of the renewed Israeli assault, said its fighters fired rockets into Israel.
The Israeli military said sirens sounded in the centre of the country after projectiles were launched from Gaza.
According to Palestinian medics, Israeli strikes targeted several houses in northern and southern areas of the Gaza Strip.
With talks failing to extend the ceasefire, the military resumed its air assaults on Gaza with a massive bombing campaign on Tuesday before sending soldiers in the day after.
The military authorities yesterday said its forces had been engaged for the past 24 hours in what it described as an operation to expand a buffer zone separating the northern and southern halves of Gaza, known as the Netzarim corridor.
Israel ordered residents to stay away from the Salahuddin road, the main north-south route, and said they should travel along the coast instead.
