The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Occupation Army, Eyal Zamir, officially announced yesterday the start of a new military offensive named “Gideon’s Vehicles 2,” aiming to fully occupy the city of Gaza after surrounding it and displacing its residents. Israel expects the offensive to lead to the displacement of one million Palestinians.

Zamir said in a military statement following a field tour in the Gaza Strip, accompanied by commanders of the southern region, the 162nd Division, Givati Brigade, 401 Brigade, and the 215th Artillery Brigade: “We have entered the second phase of Operation Gideon’s Vehicles to achieve the war’s objectives.”

The announcement comes weeks after the Israeli army described Gaza as a “dangerous combat zone,” carrying out extensive airstrikes and demolitions that caused thousands of casualties and massive destruction. An Israeli Defense Ministry official said, “Recent days have witnessed displacement from the north to the south.”

He added, “So far, about 70,000 Gazans have left the northern part of the Strip,” explaining that Israeli authorities expect “one million people” to be displaced southward, without specifying a timeframe.

He pointed out that Israel “seeks to designate a humanitarian zone,” which will be officially announced in the coming days. This zone is expected to extend from a group of refugee camps in central Gaza to the Al-Mawasi coastal area in the south, and also eastward, according to the official.

Seventy-three Palestinians have been killed since midnight the night before last until yesterday afternoon due to Israeli shelling targeting various parts of the Strip. Medical sources in Gaza confirmed that 40 Palestinians were martyred since midnight Tuesday.

In Geneva, a United Nations committee announced yesterday that at least 21,000 children in Gaza suffer from disabilities since the outbreak of the war on October 7, 2023. The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stated that about 40,500 children have been exposed to “war-related injuries” over two years, more than half of whom suffer from disabilities.

Reviewing the situation in the Palestinian territory, the committee said people with hearing or visual impairments were often not informed of Israeli evacuation orders, making displacement “impossible” for them.

Committee member Muhannad Al-Azza cited during a press conference an example of a deaf mother killed in Rafah with her children, unaware of the evacuation instructions. The committee also reported cases of disabled persons forced to flee under unsafe conditions that do not preserve their dignity, such as crawling through sand or mud without mobility assistance.