Jason Burke in Jerusalem

By going public now Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to squeeze Hamas for concessions and please the far right

• Israel to expand military operations in Gaza to establish ‘sustained presence’
• Middle East crisis – live updates

The announcement of Israel’s plan to launch imminently a new, expanded offensive in Gaza and to retain the territory it seized is a significant moment, at least in terms of public rhetoric.

Throughout the nearly 19-month war, Israeli troops have carried out large and frequently bloody operations that have covered all except central parts of Gaza, but they have largely restricted their permanent presence to a buffer zone about 1km deep along the devastated territory’s perimeter and two relatively narrow east-west corridors.

Bureij, Beit Lahiya, Gaza City and Khan Younis hit as Israeli government prepares to expand offensive

Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 40 people across Gaza during the past 24 hours, civil defence officials in the devastated Palestinian territory said, as Israel’s government prepared to order an expansion of its military offensive.

Nine people were killed when a strike hit a home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza; another six people died in a separate strike targeting a family home in the northern city of Beit Lahiya; six more died in a strike on a community kitchen in Gaza City, and an overnight attack on the Khan Younis refugee camp killed at least 11 people including three babies up to a year old, the officials said.

Benjamin Netanyahu says strikes intended to deter Syria’s new leadership from any hostile move against the Druze

Syria’s new rulers have angrily denounced raids launched by Israel’s air force against unidentified targets near the presidential palace in Damascus, warning of a “dangerous escalation”.

Israeli officials have said the attacks were intended to send a message to the Syrian government after days of bloody clashes near Damascus between pro-government militia and fighters from the Druze minority sect.

Freedom Flotilla Coalition claims Israel to blame for attack on unarmed civilian vessel in international waters

A ship carrying humanitarian aid and activists to Gaza has been bombed by drones and disabled while in international waters off Malta as it headed towards the Palestinian territory, its organisers have said.

“At 00:23 Maltese time, the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship came under direct attack in international waters,” the group said in a statement.

Benjamin Netanyahu says strike intended to deter Syria’s new leadership from any hostile move against the Druze

Israel’s air force has launched airstrikes against unidentified targets near Syria’s presidential palace, in what Israeli officials said was a warning to the Syrian government after days of bloody clashes near Damascus between pro-government militia and fighters from the Druze minority sect.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and the defence minister, Israel Katz, said in a joint statement that the attack early on Friday, the second this week in Syria, was intended to deter the country’s new leadership from any hostile move against the Druze.

Witnesses tell of ‘walls of flame’ surging across woodland, while high winds disrupt Independence Day events

Wildfires continued to threaten swaths of forest and fields in Israel on Thursday, though firefighters successfully reopened the main road linking the country’s two principal cities.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, declared a national emergency after the fires broke out on Wednesday along the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, prompting police to shut the route and evacuate thousands of people from nearby communities.