Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” the defense minister said Wednesday.Israel’s offensive in the Palestinian territory was “expanding to crush and clean the area" of militants and "seizing large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel,

Israel says its war in Gaza is "expanding to crush and clean the area" of Hamas, but Palestinian civilians are once again being killed and displaced in huge numbers.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” the defense minister said, while officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said that Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 40 people, nearly a dozen of them children.

Authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza accuse Israeli forces of a "heinous massacre" with a strike on a school they say killed almost 30 people, many of them children.

Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize ''large areas,'' the defense minister said, while officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 30 people,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was shifting gears in Gaza and taking over more areas. “We are also doing something else: We are seizing the Morag Corridor. This will be an additional Philadelphi Corridor,

Israel’s defense minister said the military is taking control of significant territory to establish security zones.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Wednesday a major expansion of the military’s operation in Gaza involving the seizure of large areas of land that would be “incorporated into Israel’s security zones.