The military confirms a large-scale operation in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, an area that is believed to be largely free of Hamas gunmen. Aid groups suspend food deliveries to the area.

Israel Defense Forces announced Wednesday that a soldier had been killed and two other soldiers were seriously injured as heavy fighting flared up again in northern Gaza. The military had earlier said it had completed its main mission to destroy Hamas bases there.

The soldier’s name was Staff Sgt. Avraham Wovagen is a 21-year-old Nahal Brigade soldier from Netanya. He belongs to the 932nd Batallion of the Nahal Brigade. The death of Avraham Wovagen brought the total number of dead soldiers in the ground offensive to 237.

Separately in Gaza’s northern part, an anti-tank rocket seriously injured a soldier from the 932nd Batallion and a reserve member of the 636th combat intelligence collection unit.

The IDF confirmed on Wednesday that they had conducted a large-scale raid in Gaza City’s Zeitoun district, killing Hamas agents and finding weapons.

IDF reported that the Israeli Air Force, 215th Artillery Regiment, and other units carried out attacks against dozens Hamas targets, including observation posts and weapon depots in Zeitoun.

The 401st Armored Brigade entered the neighborhood and raided suspicious buildings.

According to the IDF, during the operation, dozens Hamas operatives were killed in clashes or airstrikes. The IDF also reported that troops found weapons in nearby homes.

Sources in Palestine reported that heavy fighting and airstrikes had occurred in northern Gaza in the last two days. The military ordered the evacuation on Tuesday of two neighborhoods in Gaza City’s south edge. This was an indication that there were still many operatives putting up a strong resistance.

The operation in Zeitoun came after the IDF announced that it had defeated Hamas’s fighting force in north Gaza, withdrawn its forces and started to focus on smaller attacks in designated areas.

The IDF also said that troops in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, which has been at the center of the offensive over the past few weeks, were “deepening the fight” against Hamas.

IDF reported that the Givati Brigade launched an offensive into new areas of eastern Khan Younis and killed many Hamas operatives. The Paratroopers Brigade, Commando Brigade, and 7th Armored Brigade expanded operations in western Khan Younis.

The army reported that a soldier from the Givati Brigade in southern Gaza was severely injured by an explosive device.

In the wake of the renewed fighting in Gaza’s northern region, international concerns about the humanitarian situation have grown. The area has been isolated ever since Israeli troops moved in in late October. Large areas of Gaza have been reduced in rubble but hundreds of thousands Palestinians still remain, cut off from most aid.

The conditions described are similar to a famine, where families limit themselves only to one meal per day and bake bread by mixing grains with animal and bird feed.

“The situation is beyond imagination,” said Soad Ab Hussein. She was a widowed mother of five children who had taken refuge in an abandoned school in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp.

Ayman Abu Awad lives in Zeitoun and eats only one meal per day. He does this to save money for his four kids.

He said that people ate whatever they found, including animal feeds and rotten food.

The World Food Program, which has been a major contributor to the chaos in Gaza, announced Tuesday that it had halted food deliveries throughout the northern part of the territory.

UN figures show that the number of trucks entering the besieged area has more than doubled over the last two weeks. UN workers and UN officials have accused Israel of failing in its duty to protect convoys during the airstrikes, as well as on the ground, and described a breakdown of security with Palestinians often rushing to grab food from trucks.

The World Food Program announced that it had to stop aid to the North due to “complete chaos and violent outbursts caused by the collapse of civil orders.”

The company said that it first stopped delivering aid to the north in three weeks after a strike damaged an aid truck. The convoys were attacked by hungry people and gunfire on Sunday and Monday.

WFP stated that it is working to resume delivery as soon as possible. The WFP called for the opening up of crossing points from Israel to Gaza’s northern part and for a better coordination system with Israeli military.

The report warned that “people are already dying due to hunger-related causes.”

Israeli officials claimed that the failure of aid groups to properly organize themselves was to blame for the failure of trucks to reach Palestinians in Gaza.

Moshe Tetro is an official at COGAT (Israeli military body responsible for civilian Palestinian affairs). He said that the UN and other aid organizations are unable to accept trucks in Gaza, or distribute them. More than 450 trucks waited on the Palestinian side at the Kerem Shalom border crossing but UN staff hadn’t come to distribute them.

Around 3,000 Hamas terrorists launched a rampage across southern Israel killing around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, while taking 250 hostages. Around 130 hostages are still held by the terrorists. A quarter of them is believed to have died.

Israel launched an offensive to liberate the hostages and destroy Hamas.

Hamas’ Gaza Health Ministry claims that over 29,000 people were killed. The health ministry’s figures cannot be independently verified. They include civilians as well as Hamas members who were killed in Gaza. The IDF claims to have killed more than 12,000 terrorists in Gaza and around 1,000 in Israel on October 7th.

There has been little progress in the four months since the last hostage crisis to free the remaining hostages or bring an end the the fighting.

The White House announced Tuesday that it would send Brett McGurk as coordinator for the Middle East & North Africa to Egypt on Wednesday and Israel on Thursday.

The main focus of the talks was to try to move forward with a deal that would free the hostages, and dissuade Israel to launch a planned Rafah offensive.

Israel has repeatedly refused to abandon plans for an operation in Rafah. This is Gaza’s southernmost town, where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge, many of them in tents. Israel claims Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, is Hamas’s last stronghold. The terror group’s leaders and hostages may be there. Two hostages were released from Rafah by the military earlier in the month

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday that Hamas had started delivering medication to the hostages a month after they arrived.