Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military is “switching gears” in Gaza, dividing and seizing more parts of the strip, a move experts say could mean Israel establishing deeper, more long-term control over the territory.

Around 280,000 Gazans have been newly displaced amid intensified hostilities. Overcrowded shelters face flea, mite infestations, while aid blockades worsen the crisis.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday a major expansion of the military’s operation in Gaza involving the seizure of large areas of land that would be “incorporated into Israel’s security zones.

International legal system is endangered by general inaction of international community ‘in face of most egregious violations of international law’ perpetrated by Israel, experts say - Anadolu Ajansı

The United Nations on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" an assertion by Israel that there was enough food in the Gaza Strip to last for a long period of time, despite the closure of all 25 bakeries in the enclave supported by the World Food Programme.

The United Nations Human Rights Council is scheduled on Friday to reappoint an investigator into Israel with a history of antisemitism and vitriol against the Jewish state, amid fierce pushback from the US and other opponents.

The offensive comes as Israel faces criticism after the United Nations said bodies of aid workers were found in a “mass grave.”

Israel announced the launch of a new ground offensive in Gaza City on Friday, with rescuers saying military operations had killed at least 30 people across the Palestinian territory since dawn.Israel has pushed since the collapse of a short-lived truce in the war with Hamas to seize territory in Gaza in what it has called a strategy to force the militants to free hostages still in captivity.