GAZA - Israel Air Force pilots have heavily bombarded Gaza this week, killing hundreds and severely wounding hundreds more. 

The Israeli military on Friday topped off weeks of bombardment and heavy fighting, by announcing it was escalating its offensive. 

"Operation Gideon's Chariots" is the name of the new offensive, its intention, according to the IDF's Hebrew X page, is to seize swathes of land and force the civilian population to the south.

The escalation has sparked condemnation from the United Nations and human rights organizations due to the heavy toll on civilians, with children comprising more than half of the Gaza Strips' population.

The Palestinian health ministry reported Saturday another 150 deaths in the previous 24 hours, and an injury toll of 459. Israeli Air Force pilots rarely miss their mark, those injured are likely to be facing life-changing injuries including amputations.

"The situation for Palestinians in Gaza is beyond description, beyond atrocious & beyond inhumane," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres posted on X on Saturday.

"A policy of siege & starvation makes a mockery of international law. The blockade against humanitarian aid must end immediately. This is a moment for moral clarity & action," Guterres added.

The IDF said in its Friday statement that it had launched "extensive attacks and mobilized forces to seize strategic areas in the Gaza Strip, as part of the opening moves of Operation ‘Gideon's Chariots' and the expansion of the campaign in Gaza, to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza, including the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas."

On Saturday the IDF said: "During operations in northern Gaza, the IDF troops from the Northern Brigade, under Division 252, eliminated dozens of terrorists and destroyed multiple terror infrastructures."

While IDF statements often claim an aim of the offensive on Gaza is to secure the release of the hostages, Israel has had little to no success in staging any major rescue attempts. Most captive releases have come through negotiations with Hamas. The IDF, while having incredible intelligence means to locate Hamas and other militant leaders, has failed to apply the same resources to locate and rescue hostages. Instead it has subjected the hostages, past and present, to the same inhumane, and cruel air force bombardments, and starvation it has plied on the Palestinians. The cutting off of food, water, electricity, medicines, and the destruction of health facilities has left not only Palestinians in dire condition, but so too the hostages. 

Israelis that have welcomed the return of those hostages released so far,  have complained bitterly as to how little food they were given, how they were deprived of healthcare and medicines, and how they were kept in areas such as tunnels - without having regard as to who was responsible for these conditions.

The sudden and sharp escalation has come after U.S. President Donald Trump swept through the Gulf, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. All the headlines however have been designated to the royal welcome the U.S. president received, and the billions of dollars in trade deals consummated. There was no public airing by Trump or the Gulf states as to the dour conditions of the Palestinians, or the renewed attacks on them, although at theend of his tour in Abu Dhabi, the president told news reporters: "We're looking at Gaza. And we're going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving."

It is unclear as to whether the U.S. and Israel are still on the same page. Israeli Prime Minister said earlier in  the week, as Air Force One was touring the Gulf, "We are destroying more and more homes, they have nowhere to return to. The only inevitable outcome will be the desire of Gazans to emigrate outside of the Gaza Strip." 

Israel Air Force command bunker | Photo credit: IDF

While the Israeli Air Force, and troops on the ground were busy this week topping up their more than 53,000 body count, and adding to the hundreds of thousands of life-changing injuries they have inflicted, a huge number of tanks were approaching the Gazan border.

Meantime the Israeli military took out a Hezbollah commander in a car bombing in Lebanon on Saturday while bombing strategic ports in the Hudaydah and Salif Ports in Yemen. Separately, an Israeli minister has  to start assassinating Houthi leaders.