The Latest: Israeli military presses on with its new ground offensive on Gaza City

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Israeli forces pressed on with a new ground offensive in Gaza City on Wednesday as strikes overnight across the Palestinian territory killed at least 16 people, hospital officials said.

Hundreds of thousands remained in the city, the territory’s largest and already in ruins from nearly two years of war and struggling with famine.

The latest Israeli operation, which started Tuesday, further escalates a conflict that has roiled the Middle East and likely pushes any ceasefire farther out of reach. The Israeli military, which says it wants to “destroy Hamas’ military infrastructure” hasn’t given a timeline for the offensive, but there were indications it could take months.

Many have been attempting to relocate from the city, where 1 million people once lived, to the southern Gaza Strip following Israeli military calls for a full evacuation.

Here's the latest:

The Israeli Defense Ministry says it has completed testing of Iron Beam, a high-power laser system designed to shoot down rockets, and will begin deploying it by the end of the year.

It said the system had proved effective in intercepting rockets, mortars, aircraft and drones. It is far less costly than Israel’s existing multitiered missile defenses, which fire interceptors.

“Now that the Iron Beam’s performance has been proven, we anticipate a significant leap in air defense capabilities through the deployment of these long-range laser weapon systems,” the ministry said.

Israel’s far-right finance minister says Gaza could be a “real estate bonanza” and that he is discussing with the Trump administration how to share the proceeds.

Bezalel Smotrich, speaking at an urban renewal conference in Tel Aviv, said a “business plan” has been submitted to President Donald Trump.

“We paid a lot of money for this war, so we need to divide how we make a percentage on the land marketing later in Gaza,” he said.

“And now, no kidding, we’ve done the demolition phase, which is always the first phase of urban renewal. Now we need to build. It’s much cheaper.”

Smotrich, a key ally in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, wants to continue the war until Hamas is eradicated, relocate much of Gaza’s population to other countries through what they refer to as “voluntary emigration” and rebuild Jewish settlements that were dismantled in 2005.

The Trump administration is boosting sanctions on four Iran-aligned Iraqi militia groups it says are responsible for repeated attacks against American and allied facilities and interests inside Iraq.

The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it had added Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Harakat Ansar Allah al-Awfiya, and Kata’ib al-Imam Ali to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

All four had been previously listed and subject to sanctions, including freezes on any assets they might have that enter U.S. jurisdictions, but the FTO designations make it a criminal offense for any American to provide them with “material support,” a broad term that could include monetary donations or other types of financial or logistical assistance.

The ministry said Wednesday that the death toll has climbed to 65,062, with another 165,697 wounded since Hamas’ attack on Israel in 2023.

Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts announcing famine in Gaza City.

The ministry doesn't say how many were civilians or militants, but has said women and children make up around half the dead.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. Forty-eight hostages, fewer than half believed to be alive, remain in Gaza.

The European Union has announced its toughest plan yet to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza, including increasing tariffs on some Israeli goods and imposing sanctions on 10 Hamas leaders, Israeli settlers and two members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet.

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, so the tariffs might have significant effects on Israel’s economy. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has vowed that Israel will resist the European campaign. The EU is divided over the war, and it’s unclear if a majority will support the sanctions and trade measures.

Pope Leo XIV expressed his “profound” solidarity with Palestinians and demanded that Israel respect international humanitarian law as it pushes its new offensive in Gaza.

“Before the Almighty Lord who commanded ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and before all of human history, every person always has an inviolable dignity that must be respected and protected,” Leo said Wednesday.

The first American pope was interrupted by applause when he referred to Gaza at the end of his weekly general audience. He invited all to join his calls for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, a diplomatic solution to the conflict and “full compliance with international humanitarian law.”

The Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Col. Avichay Adraee, said on social media that a new route along Gaza's coastline will open at noon Wednesday for those residents heading south. He says it will remain open for two days.

But many Palestinians in the north have been cut off from the outside world. The Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, said Israeli strikes on the main network lines in northern Gaza had collapsed internet and telephone services Wednesday morning.

The Associated Press tried unsuccessfully to reach many people in Gaza City.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty says the “Palestinians should never be forced to leave their homeland.”

“We will not tolerate a second Nakba,” he added. Nakba is the Arabic for the “catastrophe” and refers to the mass expulsion of about 700,000 Palestinians from what is now Israel during the 1948 war that surrounded its creation.

His comment came in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, the English version of the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper, published on Wednesday.

He denounced what Israel has called a plan for “voluntary emigration” for Palestinians from Gaza, saying that would have “serious repercussions for the security and stability of the region.”

The World Health Organization says it has supported the medical evacuation of 10 critically ill children from Gaza to the United Kingdom. They arrived with about 50 companions.

The U.K. government said it was working to make sure the families receive “appropriate support” during their stay.

“Every child deserves the chance to heal, to play, to simply be able to dream again,” Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said.

More children are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. The U.K. government has hardened its stance over Israel’s military activities in Gaza and its anticipated announcement next week at the U.N. General Assembly recognizing a Palestinians state.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares says his country will work with Norway “to put a fund on the table” to help compensate the Palestinian government in the West Bank for tax revenue being withheld by Israel.

“Israel is trying to annihilate the idea and possibility of a Palestinian state with bombs in Gaza in a veritable massacre,” Albares said on a visit to Egypt.

In February 2024, Norway said it would transfer tax funds to the PA that had been frozen for months because of a dispute with Israel.

Israel collects taxes and customs on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and also helps pay for public services in Gaza.

After the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 triggered the war in Gaza, Israel has periodically refused to make the transfers, with far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying the funds were supporting terror.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement Wednesday saying they condemned “in the strongest terms” Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza.

The ministry wrote on X that the operation marked an “extension of the war of genocide” against the Palestinians.

Qatar is incensed over an Israeli strike last week that killed five Hamas members and a local security official.

Gaza hospital officials said Wednesday that women and children were among the 16 killed overnight in the territory.

More than half the dead were killed in strikes on Gaza City, including a child and his mother at their apartment in the Shati refugee camp, according to officials from the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.

In central Gaza, the Al-Awda Hospital said an Israeli strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant woman. Two parents and their child were also killed when a strike hit their tent in the Muwasi area west of the city of Khan Younis, said officials from the Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

The Israeli military didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the strikes.

A coalition of leading aid groups urged the international community Wednesday to take stronger measures to stop Israel’s offensive on Gaza City after a commission of U.N. experts said that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Israel rejected what it called a “distorted and false” report.

A statement from the aid groups said countries “must use every available political, economic, and legal tool at their disposal to intervene” and that this moment “demands decisive action.”

The message was signed by leaders of over 20 aid organizations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera and Save the Children.

Before Israel's anticipated new ground offensive focusing on Gaza City, aid workers last week managed to save thousands of priceless archaeological artifacts in Gaza from destruction after Israel targeted a warehouse building in a strike.

Israeli military said Hamas used the building for intelligence. It contained items from more than a quarter-century of excavations, including from a fourth-century Byzantine monastery.

International aid groups negotiated with the Israeli military for a delay to move the artifacts. Workers rushed to pack the items in trucks, but some were broken or left behind. The artifacts are now in a safer location but remain in danger, housed outside, as the Israeli offensive widens.