Israel ordered its troops to permanently seize the parts of the Gaza Strip, to be “annexed to Israel”, unless Hamas delivers the remaining hostages, Israeli Katz Defense Minister Israeli Katz said on Friday.
The statement came after Israel this week broke the high fire of two months with Hamas, with the resumption of air attacks and land operations in Gaza killing almost 600 people.
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to intensify those operations until the militant group, which nominally controlled Gaza before this conflict round, returns to the 59 dead and alive hostages that continues to be captive.
“I have instructed the FDI to take over additional areas in Gaza, while evacuating the population, and expand security areas around Gaza for the protection of Israeli communities and FDI soldiers,” Katz said in a statement. “The more Hamas persists in his refusal to free the hostages, the more territory he will lose, which will be attached to Israel.”
Katz also threatened the use of “all military and civil pressure tools, including the evacuation of the population of Gaza to the south and the implementation of voluntary relocation plans for Gaza residents”, while describing the new most expansive phase of Israel’s military offensive in the stinging.
He added that this would be done “through permanent Israeli control of the territory.”
Hamas said Friday that “remains in the heart of negotiations” and promised mediators, including “discussing Witkoff’s proposal and the various ideas on the table.”
The group said in a statement that its objective is “to achieve a prison exchange agreement that ensures the liberation of prisoners, the war ends and achieves the withdrawal.”
Since signed the Alto El Fuego in January, Netanyahu has faced the twin pressures of hostage families that urge him to facilitate his return, and his members of the right -wing coalition threatening to collapse his government unless war reset. On Tuesday, his army opted for the latter, throwing attacks on Gaza that he and the White House blamed Hamas’s refusal to free more hostages.
But Netanyahu’s accusations do not reflect the structure of the agreement.
In the first phase of the truce, Israel exchanged 1,800 Palestinian prisoners and detainees for the return of 25 living hostages and the bodies of eight more than the approximately 250 that were taken captive during October 7 of Hamas, October 2023, terrorist attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed, according to Israel.
Almost 49,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched their offensive in the enclave, according to local health officials, whose figures from the World Health Organization have said in the past are of good reputation.
The first phase of Alto El Fuego ended on March 1 and was destined to precede a second phase 16 days after the exchange of all the remaining hostages and the establishment of a high permanent fire.
That never happened, with Netanyahu agreeing a proposal presented by the envoy of the White House Steven Witkoff to extend the high fire for 50 days to discuss phase two. Hamas rejected him immediately, but Katz said Friday that Israel was still standing.
The White House has made it clear that it is with Israel’s decision, but has not yet responded to the request for NBC News comments on Katz’s comments on Friday.
“The president made Hamas very clear that if they did not release all the hostages, there would be all the hell to pay,” said the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
This is a development story. Consult the updates again.
