The Israeli army has begun a new operation in the refugee neighbourhood of al-Bureij in the central part of the Gaza Strip, according to media reports from Tuesday evening.
In addition to the air force, ground troops are also involved, they said. The military had already been in the area at the beginning of the year, but withdrew again, the Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.
The Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement is still strong in the densely populated area. Israel has set itself the goal of crushing the terrorist organization militarily.
The army announced on Tuesday that a Hamas facility in a school belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in al-Bureij had been attacked with a drone the previous night. The Islamists had planned numerous attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers from there, it said.
The information could not be independently verified.
According to media reports, Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi had already complained last month about the lack of plans for the establishment of a civil administration in the embattled Gaza Strip.
Due to the lack of a political strategy for the post-war period, Israel's army has to repeatedly fight in places in the Gaza Strip that it had previously captured and from which it had withdrawn.
