The bodies of more than a dozen aid workers have been recovered in southern Gaza from what a United Nations agency described as a “mass grave,” a week after they went missing following attacks by Israeli forces.

The Abu Teirs thought the Israel-Hamas cease-fire might mean they could start to rebuilding their lives. But a new round of Israeli airstrikes dashed those dreams.

Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip is expanding to seize “large areas,” the defense minister said Wednesday, as airstrikes on the southern city of Khan Younis killed 17 people overnight, according to hospital officials.

All bakeries in Gaza have closed due to a severe lack of fuel and flour caused by Israel’s near month-long blockade of humanitarian aid, according to local authorities.

The United Nations on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" an assertion by Israel that there was enough food in the Gaza Strip to last for a long period of time, despite the closure of all 25 bakeries in the enclave supported by the World Food Programme.

As Israel orders wide new evacuations across the Gaza Strip, Palestinians say they are crushed by exhaustion and hopelessness at the prospect of fleeing once again.

Journalists, and journalism, are increasingly a casualty of war,” said Stephanie Savell, director of the Costs of War project. “Democracy and peace require a free press; militarism helps fuel rollbacks to democracy in more ways than one.