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The Israeli army (IDF) has launched its first ground operation since the start of the Gaza war in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. According to Reuters, there are fears that the Hamas terrorist movement is holding the remaining hostages in the city. The army launched the offensive on Monday under heavy artillery and air cover, just hours after ordering a large-scale evacuation of the area, the BBC also reports. The UK and more than 20 other countries have called for an immediate end to the war in the Gaza Strip.

Local medics told Reuters that at least three Palestinians were killed and several others were wounded in tank shelling that hit eight homes and three mosques. The Israeli army said on Sunday it intended to fight Hamas militants in the area, against whom it is waging a war in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attack by the group in October.

The Israeli advance and bombing have forced dozens of families who remained to flee west to the coastal area of Deir al-Balah or to Khan Yunis further south, Reuters reports. Because Deir al-Balah has so far been spared ground operations in the war, tens of thousands of Palestinians from other, completely devastated parts of the region have moved there, according to the BBC, and are living in tents in difficult conditions alongside residents of a 1948 refugee camp.

The Israeli military confirmed that it has not entered the Deir al-Balah neighborhoods currently under evacuation order since the outbreak of the conflict, while saying it is continuing “operations with great intensity to destroy enemy capabilities and terrorist infrastructure in the area.”

The city of Deir al-Balah, the capital of the governorate of the same name, is located about fourteen kilometers southeast of Gaza City. According to estimates by the Jewish forces in May, an estimated 350,000 Palestinians live in the entire central Gaza Strip.

Fears for hostages' lives

The reason the Jewish state's army has so far stayed away from this particular location, according to Israeli sources told Reuters, was the fear that Hamas might be holding the remaining hostages there. Jerusalem believes that of the fifty hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, about twenty remain alive.

It is unclear what prompted the army to change its stance, the BBC noted. Concerns for the lives of loved ones have already been expressed by families of those abducted. A forum that brings together families of kidnapped Israelis called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yisrael Katz in a statement on Monday evening to “appear before the Israeli public and clearly explain why the offensive in the Deir al-Balah area does not endanger the hostages.”

Hamas has previously threatened to kill hostages if soldiers approach the places where the hostages are being held."The people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangers hostages - living or dead. No one will be able to claim they did not know what was at stake," the forum said.

The war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, 2023, with an attack by Hamas and other Islamists on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage. Most of them were released during two ceasefires in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Since the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip in October last year, more than 59,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died - these figures are reported by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which is controlled by the terrorist Hamas, but are also considered reliable by the UN.

The ministry also said that 130 Palestinians had been killed and over a thousand wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza in the past 24 hours. At least 67 people were killed on Sunday, according to the ministry. The information could not be immediately independently verified.

Over twenty countries called for an end to the war

The United Kingdom and more than 20 other countries have called for an immediate end to the war in the Gaza Strip in a joint statement. The British government said it was ready to take further measures to support an immediate ceasefire and a political path to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region, the statement, signed by representatives of France, Italy, Japan, Australia, Canada and Denmark, writes Reuters.

Israel rejected the statement."Israel rejects the joint statement by a group of countries because it is detached from reality and sends the wrong signal to Hamas," Israeli diplomacy said. According to it, the Palestinian movement Hamas is solely responsible for the continuation of the war, as it has not yet accepted the ceasefire proposal and is deliberately carrying out activities that harm civilians waiting for help.

The Czech Republic is not among the signatories. Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Drake said that Czech diplomacy was not approached with an offer to join the joint declaration on an immediate end to the war in the Gaza Strip. He agrees with the need to address the critical humanitarian situation.

The states criticize the Israeli government, among other things, for the current method of distributing humanitarian aid, which, according to the foreign ministers of the signatory countries, “supports instability and deprives the people of Gaza of their human dignity.” They also claim that more than 800 Palestinians have been killed while waiting for humanitarian aid.

Earlier on Monday, Belgium's King Philippe also spoke out in unusually strong terms on the Gaza crisis. He said Europe must show stronger leadership in the crisis in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The situation has gone on for too long and is"a disgrace to humanity," he added in a speech on Sunday to mark Belgium's national holiday. The king said Belgium supports UN Secretary-General António Guterres' call"for an immediate end to this intolerable crisis."

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is alarmed by the accelerating humanitarian collapse in the Gaza Strip, where he says the last life-saving safety nets are collapsing, his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said, according to Reuters. He stressed that Israel has an obligation to allow and facilitate humanitarian assistance provided by the UN and other aid agencies.