The Israel Army “will seize the large areas” of Gaza and add them to the country’s security zones, the country’s defense minister said on Wednesday when he requested a large -scale evacuation of its population.
“The operation ‘power and sword’ in Gaza is expanding,” said Israel Katz in a statement. Then he asked Gaza residents to “eliminate Hamas” and return to the remaining hostages.
While Katz did not clarify how much Israel, he intends to take advantage of, his country’s army has renewed his military offensive in Gaza in recent weeks when expanding in the south and adding a large security area in the Netzarim corridor that crosses the medium of the strip.
Katz’s announcement occurred after Israel’s defense forces issued radical evacuation orders on Monday, covering the majority of the southernmost city of Rafah in Gaza. They directed the population to go to the north to the Al-Mawasi tent camp. The camp was previously designated as a safe area by the Israeli army, although several attacks reached the area.
The headquarters of the Hostage Families Forum, a group that represents most people’s families in Hamas’ captivity, said it was “horrified” by Katz’s announcement on Wednesday.
“The Israeli government has the obligation to release the 59 hostages of Hamas’s captivity, to follow all possible channels to advance an agreement for their release,” he said in a statement, which also asked the Trump administration countries and mediators to continue exerting pressure on Hamas.
Israel has increased its military activity in Gaza since the first phase of a high -fire fire agreement with Hamas came to an end on March 1. More than 42 days, Hamas liberated 25 live hostages and the bodies of eight in exchange for around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, designed to establish a high permanent fire, have stagnated since then. Subsequently, Israel blocked the flow of aid and goods in Gaza while performing its military operation and hit the enclave with regular air attacks.
In the 10 days before Monday, at least 322 children have been killed and 609 wounded in Gaza, said March 31.
Their deaths joined a toll that according to health officials in the enclave led by Hamas have exceeded more than 50,000 people from the Israel military campaign in Gaza after The terrorist attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Around 1,200 people were killed and 250 hostages that day, according to the many Israeli.
The aid block of a month of Israel that entered into force on March 2 is the longest since the war began.
The doctors of the Aid Sin Bordras Group asked the country to “end this inhuman siege” in an X Wednesday publication, adding that their teams were wearing injuries No analgesics and treating skin conditions with lotion.
Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said on Tuesday that all its 25 bakeries in Gaza had closed due to the lack of fuel and flour in the territory.
“The hot meals continue, but the supplies will last two weeks,” he said in an X publication, adding that he would distribute his latest food plots in the next two days.
In response, the Israeli military agency, Cogat, refuted in a position on Tuesday X, saying that some 25,200 trucks had entered Gaza during the truce and that there was “enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets civilians have it.”
But the UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, dismissed this claim as “ridicule” on Tuesday, adding that “the PMA does not close its bakeries for fun.”
“If there is no flour, if there is no gas for cooking, bakeries cannot open,” he added.
