Israel promises to seize

Jerusalem – Israel’s renewed military offensive in the Gaza Strip is “expanding to crush and clean the area” of the militants and take “large areas that will be added to the security areas of the State of Israel,” said Defense Minister Israel Katz, in a written statement on Wednesday. The Israeli government has long kept a damping zone just within Gaza along its security, which has expanded greatly since the War with Hamas It was caused by the groups on October 7, 2023 terrorist attack.

Israel says that the cushioning zone is necessary for their safety, but the Palestinians see it as a hoarding land that is shrugged even more in the narrow coastal territory, home of around 2 million people.

Katz did not specify which areas of Gaza would be seized in the expanded operation, which he includes the “extensive evacuation” of the population of the combat areas. His statement came after the Israeli army ordered all civilians to evacuate Rafah’s southern city and nearby areas, an order that occurred approximately two weeks after Israel left a high fire that negotiated for the United States, Qatar and Egypt and resumed its bombing of the Palestinian territory.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel aims to maintain an open but not specified security control of the Gaza Strip once he achieves his goal of crushing Hamas.

“The only way to end the war”?

Katz asked Gaza residents to “expel Hamas and return to all hostages.” Hamas, for a long time a terrorist organization designated by the United States and Israel, still has 59 captives, of which 24 are believed to be still alive, after most of the rest were released in high -fire or other agreements.

“This is the only way to end the war,” Katz said.

However, the Hostage Families Forum, which represents the families of most captives and has long pressed an agreement to end the war and bring their loved ones home, did not agree with that evaluation. The Forum issued a statement by saying that families were “horrified to wake up this morning to the announcement of the Minister of Defense about the expansion of military operations in Gaza.”

The group said that the Israeli government “has the obligation to release the 59 hostages of Hamas’ captivity, to pursue all possible channels to advance an agreement for their release,” and emphasized that every day that passes puts at greater risk the lives of their loved ones.

“Their lives hang in balance as increasingly The disturbing details continue to emerge On the horrible conditions in which they are: chained, abused and desperate of medical care, “said the forum, who asked the Trump administration and other mediators to continue pressing Hamas to release the hostages.

“Our highest priority must be immediate treatment to bring all the hostages back home, the living for rehabilitation and those killed by the appropriate burial, and end this war,” said the group.

Death and displacement in Gaza 16 days after Israel resumes war

Israel continued to attack the Gaza Strip 16 days after leaving the fire, with air attacks during the night killing 17 people in the city of southern Khan Younis, hospital officials said. The Nasser hospital authorities said that the bodies of 12 people killed in a nighttime attack that were taken to the hospital included five women, one of them pregnant women and two children. Officials of the European Hospital of Gaza said they received five bodies of people killed in two separate air attacks.

The war was caused by the terrorist attack led by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw another 251 taken as hostages back to Gaza.

The Israel reprisal war in Gaza has killed more than 50,400 Palestinians, including at least 1,066 killed since the high fire collided on March 18, according to the Ministry of Health of Gaza, directed by Hamas, which does not differ between civil and combatant victims.

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Israel claims to have killed about 20,000 militants in Gaza, but has not provided evidence.

As of March 23, more than 140,000 people had been displaced again since the end of the fire, according to the last estimation of the UN, and it is estimated that tens of thousands more fled under evacuation orders during the past week. Every time families have moved during the war, they have had to leave belongings behind and start almost from scratch, find food, water and refuge. Now, without entering fuel due to an Israeli block, transport is even more difficult, so many flee with almost nothing.

“With each displacement, we are tortured a thousand times,” said former university professor Ihab Suliman, who talked about having to flee eight times during the war with this family.

Fleeing from Rafah on Monday, Hanadi Dahoud said he was struggling to find essential elements.

“Where are we going?” She said. “We just want to live. We are tired. There are long queues waiting for bread and charity kitchens.”

The United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday that the countless UN humanitarian aid agencies were “at the end of our supplies”, forcing the World Food Program to close the 25 bakeries in Gaza due to the lack of flour and fuel to cook.

“The PMA does not close its bakeries for fun,” Dujarric said, adding that the food situation remained “very critical” since Israel closed all crosses to Gaza a month ago, cutting practically all humanitarian births in the enclave.

Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said Tuesday that almost 450,000 tons of help entered Gaza during the high fire. Cogat said that at least part of the help of the UN and its humanitarian partners were being diverted to Hamas.

Dujarric rejected that saying: “The UN has maintained a chain of custody and a very good chain of custody, in all help.”

In:
• War
• Hamas
• Israel
• Palestinians
• Gaza pull
• Middle East
• Benjamin Neta Nyahu