{"id":56285,"date":"2025-05-17T15:55:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T15:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285"},"modified":"2025-05-17T15:55:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T15:55:48","slug":"israel-expands-gaza-ground-offensive-after-days-of-air-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285","title":{"rendered":"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=28511fdd-b35d-4e19-96c6-75ae78840f2f\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Israel said on Saturday that it was expanding a new ground offensive in Gaza, with troops closing in on the enclave after days of air strikes that have killed hundreds of Palestinians. <\/p>\n<p>Defence minister Israel Katz said the renewed fighting was forcing Hamas to soften its stance in talks being held in Qatar to secure the release of the remaining hostages being held in captivity in Gaza \u2014 part of an Israeli strategy of \u201cnegotiations under fire\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A Hamas official told Reuters that a new round of talks was under way on Saturday. <\/p>\n<p>Palestinians fear the new offensive is the precursor to a plan approved on May 5 by Israel\u2019s security cabinet, under which most of the besieged enclave would be occupied by the Israeli military and 2.1mn Palestinians would be forced into a small area by the border with Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Palestinian cause is navigating one of its gravest and most perilous junctures,\u201d Egypt\u2019s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told an Arab League summit. Israel is engaged in a \u201cdeliberate endeavour to forcibly displace [Gaza\u2019s] inhabitants under untold horrors of war\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Egypt fears an exodus of Palestinians into its territory. NBC News reported that the US is negotiating with Libya to take in as many as 1mn Palestinian refugees.<\/p>\n<p>At least 250 Palestinians have been killed in the last two days, health officials in Gaza said, with hundreds more wounded. <\/p>\n<p>Israel has blocked any food, medicine or fresh water from entering Gaza for the last two and half months, pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into starvation, a UN panel said earlier this week. <\/p>\n<p>The full extent of the offensive was unclear on Saturday. Residents reported machine gun fire in parts of Gaza and Israeli media said tanks had been massed on the border. Israeli warplanes dropped flyers over some parts of Gaza with a reference to the biblical story about Moses parting the sea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Israeli army is coming,\u201d the flyer, shared widely on social media, said. <\/p>\n<p>Israel stepped up the intensity of its air strikes earlier this week as US President Donald Trump wrapped up his Gulf tour. <\/p>\n<p>Israeli officials had earlier referred to his trip as a \u201cwindow of opportunity\u201d to broker a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners that would be acceptable to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies.<\/p>\n<p>In the event, Trump only negotiated the release of a single Israeli soldier, who is also an American national. <\/p>\n<p>An estimated 20 hostages and the bodies of as many as 38\u00a0more are still being held by Hamas, which has refused to release them without a complete ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.<\/p>\n<p>Katz said Hamas\u2019s return to negotiations was evidence that neither a ceasefire nor the resumption of humanitarian assistance to Gaza was necessary for negotiations to succeed. <\/p>\n<p>UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres warned that Israel\u2019s siege was \u201cbeyond description, beyond atrocious and beyond inhumane\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA policy of siege &amp; starvation makes a mockery of international law,\u201d he said on X.<\/p>\n<p>His remarks came days after UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher warned of a looming \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza \u2014 the first time a senior UN official has publicly used such language.<\/p>\n<p>Israel rejects Fletcher\u2019s characterisation. It says it has blocked the aid to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas. <\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Germany\u2019s foreign ministry expressed \u201cdeep concern\u201d about the military offensive, saying it \u201ccould endanger the lives of the remaining hostages\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009[and] carries the risk of further deteriorating the catastrophic humanitarian situation of the population in Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, most of them women and children, according to local health officials. <\/p>\n<p>At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel in Hamas\u2019s cross-border attack on October 7 2023 and 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. <\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Berlin<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/28511fdd-b35d-4e19-96c6-75ae78840f2f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israel said on Saturday that it was expanding a new ground offensive in Gaza, with troops closing in on the enclave after days of air strikes that have killed hundreds of Palestinians. Defence minister Israel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-56285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Israel said on Saturday that it\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes | Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Israel said on Saturday that it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-17T15:55:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-17T15:55:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/https3A2F2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net2Fproduction2Fc5d0acba-29ca-48ea-ac71-18c37d0799bc.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\"},\"headline\":\"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-17T15:55:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-17T15:55:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285\"},\"wordCount\":679,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285\",\"name\":\"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes | Prosfunds\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-17T15:55:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-17T15:55:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Israel said on Saturday that it\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"width\":780,\"height\":140,\"caption\":\"Funding Factories\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes | Prosfunds","description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Israel said on Saturday that it","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes | Prosfunds","og_description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Israel said on Saturday that it","og_url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285","og_site_name":"Prosfunds","article_published_time":"2025-05-17T15:55:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-17T15:55:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/https3A2F2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net2Fproduction2Fc5d0acba-29ca-48ea-ac71-18c37d0799bc.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6"},"headline":"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes","datePublished":"2025-05-17T15:55:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-17T15:55:48+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285"},"wordCount":679,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285","name":"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes | Prosfunds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-17T15:55:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-17T15:55:48+00:00","description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Israel said on Saturday that it","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=56285#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Israel expands Gaza ground offensive after days of air strikes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","name":"Funding Factories","description":"Latest Finance News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization","name":"Funding Factories","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","width":780,"height":140,"caption":"Funding Factories"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56287,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56285\/revisions\/56287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}