Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had seized a corridor of land would could split one of Gaza’s largest city’s from the rest of the enclave.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” the defense minister said, while officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 30 people, nearly a dozen of them children.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City. Rafah "is gone,

Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the population.

At least 19 people are reported killed in Jabalia as Israel's PM says it is expanding ground operations to pressure Hamas.

Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to "crush" the area of Hamas and seize "large areas," Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday.