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Israeli forces will capture the “large areas” of Gaza and turn them into a buffer zones, Israel’s Defense Minister said on Wednesday after the army expanded its renewable offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
The announcement marks the latest intensification of Israeli operations in Gaza after Israel broke a two-month ceasefire with Hamas last month and interrupted the supplies of food, fuel, humanitarian aide and medicines for 2.2 million people living in the extinguished territory.
Israel has already turned large tracts of land along the Gaza border with the site in the buffer areas, as well as creating a similar area in the Netzarim corridor, which passes through the center of the bar, dividing its north and south.
In his statement Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz did not provide details on where or how large the new land seizures would be. But he said that renewed fights would be accompanied by a large -scale evacuation of the Gaza population from the warfare.
He also repeated his earlier calls for the Palestinians in Gaza to return against the militant Hamas group and issue Israeli hostages still held there, saying this was “the only way to end the war”.
The announcement was received with concerns by the hostages of the hostages, with the organization representing them by issuing a statement accusing Katz of “sacrificing hostages for the capture of the territory”.
“Instead of liberating hostages through an agreement and ending the war, the Israeli government is sending more troops to Gaza to fight in the same places where they have already fought again from time to time,” the hostages and forum of missing families said.
Katz’s statement came two days after Israel issued an evacuation order for the southern city of Rafah, which lies near the border between Gaza and Egypt, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.
Palestinian media reported on Wednesday that Israeli forces had carried out a heavy bombing of the area overnight, and that Israeli forces had advanced to the center and east of Rafah.
Israeli officials insist that renewed offensive is the only way to force the issuance of 59 hostages – less than half of which are still thought to be alive – that Hamas continues to hold in Gaza.
But the UN officials and aid groups have warned that renewed fighting and the associated siege of Israel of Gaza have intensified the already humanitarian catastrophic conditions in Enclave.
On Tuesday, the world food program said that the 25 bakeries he rested in Gaza was forced to close due to lack of fuel and flour, and warned that its remaining hot meal supplies would last for a maximum of two weeks.
Israel’s hardness has now killed more than 50,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials, as well as shifting most of its population – many many times – and reducing most of the ribbon in uninhabitable ruins.
Israel launched the offensive in response to Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023 on Israel, during which militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials and received 250 hostages.
