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April 2, 2025

Israel announces expansion of military operation in Gaza to seize ‘large areas’ of land, ordering residents to leave

Eugenia Yosef, Kareem Khadder and Irene Nasser

A general view of the destruction in Gaza seen from the border between Israel and Gaza on March 8, 2025. (Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance/Getty Images/File)

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.”

In the statement, Katz said the operation would also involve a “large-scale evacuation of Gaza’s population from combat zones,” without specifying details.

Signs of the operation’s expansion are yet to be seen on the ground, although the enclave saw heavy airstrikes overnight that have so far killed at least 17 people, according to local health authorities.

According to the defense minister’s statement, the military operation would expand to “crush and clear the area of terrorists and terror infrastructure, while seizing large areas that will be incorporated into Israel’s security zone.”

The Israeli military’s spokesperson for Arabic media late on Tuesday ordered residents in Gaza’s southern Rafah area to leave their homes and move north.

Last month, an Israeli official and a second source familiar with the matter told CNN that Israel was making plans for a potential major ground offensive in Gaza that would involve sending tens of thousands of troops into combat to clear and occupy large swaths of the enclave.

Katz’s statement on Wednesday did not specify whether additional Israeli troops would be involved in the expanded operation.

The announcement comes as Israel continued its aerial bombardment on the strip.

It also comes after thousands of Palestinians last week protested against Hamas and Israel’s war in Gaza. Buoyed by the protests, the defense minister called on Gazans to take to the streets, saying Hamas is “endangering” the lives of Palestinians in the enclave.

Israel resumed its offensive on Gaza two weeks ago, shattering a two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas, weeks after it imposed a complete blockade of humanitarian aid entering the enclave. It warned that its forces would maintain a permanent presence in parts of Gaza until the release of the remaining 24 hostages who are believed to still be alive.

Read the full story here.

More on the Middle East war

• QatarGate: Two close associates of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been remanded in custody for three days, following their arrest on Monday by Israeli police in connection with an investigation into suspected unlawful ties between the senior aides and Qatar, in a case that has become known as QatarGate.
  
  
• Aid worker bodies: The bodies of more than a dozen aid workers have been recovered in southern Gaza from what a United Nations agency described as a “mass grave,” a week after they went missing following attacks by Israeli forces. The Israeli military says it will investigate. 
  
  
• Egyptian proposal: Hamas has agreed to a new Egyptian proposal to release five hostages, including the American-Israeli Edan Alexander, in exchange for a renewed ceasefire, a Hamas source tells CNN. Israel responded with a counter-proposal, demanding the release of 11 living hostages and half of the deceased hostages in return for a 40-day ceasefire, a senior Israeli official said. 
  
  
• Palestinian killed by Hamas: A 22-year-old Palestinian man was tortured and killed by Hamas militants after he criticized the group publicly and participated in rare anti-Hamas protests in Gaza, his family said. Uday Rabie was taken last week by dozens of armed fighters with Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, his brother Hassan Rabie told CNN on Tuesday. 

What to watch

As the war in Gaza continues, a group of Israeli teens are saying no to the draft, a requirement for most secular Jews and other minorities over the age of 18. Since the war began, a dozen of these so-called "refuseniks" have publicly refused to enlist in the Israeli army, citing conscientious grounds. Their protest comes at a price: Some have served over 100 days in prison for their beliefs. And more are planning to follow suit. CNN followed the group to a weekly Tel Aviv pro-democracy protest where they hoped to draw attention to why they are refusing to fight. 

The digest

UAE court sentences 3 people to death in killing of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi 

A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced three people to death for the killing of Israeli-Moldovan Zvi Kogan, state media reported Monday. The state-run WAM news agency announced the verdicts of the three after a trial in the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeals’ State Security Chamber. It said a fourth person who aided the killing received a life sentence. It did not identify those charged. However, three Uzbek nationals had been arrested in Turkey and brought back to the UAE over the killing in November, according to the Associated Press.  

• Background: Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, ran a kosher grocery store in the futuristic city of Dubai, where Israelis have flocked for commerce and tourism since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords. The UAE has a burgeoning Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners. Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City. He was buried in Israel.
• Why it matters: Authorities in the UAE have not offered a motive for the killing, nor any details about how Kogan was kidnapped and slain. However it came amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which has caused outrage across the wider Muslim world and triggered fears of worsened antisemitism in both the Middle East and Europe. Diplomatic ties between Israel and the UAE have remained intact.  

Iran has rejected direct negotiations with the US in response to Trump’s letter 

Iran’s president said Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, offering Tehran’s first response to a letter President Donald Trump sent to the country’s supreme leader, the Associated Press reported. President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran’s response, delivered via the sultanate of Oman, left open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington. 

• Background: Trump had sent Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a rare letter proposing negotiations on a new nuclear deal, with a two-month ultimatum to reach an agreement. The communication contained “more of a threatening posture,” but apparently also offered “some opportunities” for Iran, the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, saying a response will come “in the coming days.” Indirect talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
• Why it matters: Trump’s letter came as both Israel and the US have warned they will never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near weapons-grade levels — something only done by atomic-armed nations. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.  

US moves B-2 stealth bombers to Indian Ocean island in massive show of force to Houthis and Iran 

The Pentagon has sent at least six B-2 bombers – 30% of the US Air Force’s stealth bomber fleet – to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, in what analysts have called a message to Iran as tensions once again flare in the Middle East. 

• Background: Trump began ramping up military action against the Houthis in mid-March, with airstrikes that killed at least 53 people and wounded almost 100 others in Yemen, according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry. Strikes have continued since, as Houthis threaten US warships in the region, in attacks that the militants say are in solidarity with Gaza as it faces bombardment by Israel, a key US ally. 
• Why it matters: The bombers arrive as the Houthis refuse to back down despite the persistent US airstrikes, and as Iran, the group’s backer and key funder, refuses talks with Washington over its nuclear program. Military aviation analyst Peter Layton told CNN that the six-bomber deployment to Diego Garcia is likely focused beyond possible Houthi targets. CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton said “such targets would potentially include Iranian nuclear and weapons storage facilities.” 

Marketplace Middle East

CNN looks at what's behind the UAE’s $1.5 trillion commitment to the US, Dubai’s digital property transformation and Turkey’s lira turmoil. 

Photo of the day

Worshippers play with balloons after the Eid al-Fitr prayer on Sidi Bishr Street in Alexandria, Egypt, on March 31. (Photo by Ayman Aref/NurPhoto via Getty Images)