Israel resumed its military offensive in Gaza in March, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal to extend the ceasefire and free the remaining hostages. Since then, the Israeli military has launched waves of airstrikes on the besieged territory, killing hundreds of Palestinians and forcing many more to evacuate.

The Israeli military has indicated it could soon launch another major offensive in Rafah and ordered most of the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip evacuated

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military is “switching gears” in Gaza, dividing and seizing more parts of the strip, a move experts say could mean Israel establishing deeper, more long-term control over the territory.

At least 73 people were killed during Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority, as Israel launched a major expansion of military operations. A recent ceasefire has become a distant memory for Palestinians in the coastal enclave after Israel announced plans to establish another security corridor dividing the strip and the army said it had encircled part of the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the population.

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

In pressing forward with its assault on the territory, Israel hopes to squeeze Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages. But other objectives have emerged.

Israel plans to establish another security corridor that divides the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday. "We are conquering the Morag corridor," he said in a video address.