Israeli forces intensify the ground operations in the north and southern Gaza while the Minister of Defense Katz warns to seize the territory if all the captives are not released.
The Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip continued for a fourth day while its land forces invaded the north and southern Gaza and the Israeli Defense Minister threatened to grasp land in the coastal enclave.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that his country would “intensify” his military campaign against Hamas on Friday and use “all military and civilian pressures, including the evacuation of the Gaza population in the South and the implementation of the voluntary migration plan of the American president Trump for the residents of Gaza”.
Katz asked the army to “seize additional areas in Gaza, evacuate the population and extend the safety zones around Gaza to protect the Israeli communities and [Israeli army] Soldiers, ”said local media.
He also warned that Israel would grab Gaza Land until the Gaza -based armed group agrees to release all the captives still held in the strip.
“The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release the hostages, the more it will lose a territory, which will be annexed to Israel,” said Katz quoted by the Jerusalem Post Journal.
“If the hostages are not released, Israel will continue to take more and more territory in the band for permanent control.”
The development comes after Israeli troops invaded the Shaboura region in Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza near the Egyptian border, and Beit Laahiya in northern Gaza on Thursday.
Earlier this week, Israel said that he had closed the main North-South path of the territory as part of its expanding ground operations.
The Hind Khoudary of Al Jazeera, reporting from Central Gaza, said that the residents of Beit Lahiya and Rafah, the Israeli forces have not given any prior warning of their activities.
“They did not throw leaflets or drop the warnings asking people to evacuate these areas. Suddenly, the Palestinians found endless air strikes and artillery bombings that attack them, “she said.
The ground operations are involved while Israel broke the ceasefire on Tuesday almost two months in Gaza, killing more than 590 Palestinians, including some 200 children, said the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Elsewhere, journalists from Al Jazeera said that the Zeitoun district of Gaza City in the North had undergone a “heavy” attack on Israeli planes on Friday.
Air attacks have also been reported in Khuza’a and Abasan, east of the south of Gaza City, Khan Younis.
Lack of help, hospitals “overwhelmed”
UNRWA, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, said the situation in Gaza was seriously concerned in the midst of huge reductions in the distribution of aid supplies.
“It is the longest period since the start of the conflict in October 2023 that no supply entered Gaza,” said Sam Rose of UNRWA, speaking of Central Gaza. “The progress we have made as a help system in the last six weeks of the ceasefire is reversed.”
Meanwhile, Khoudary of Al Jazeera said that health workers and Strips’ hospitals were overwhelmed in the middle of the renewed assault of Israel.
“We are talking about 18 days of zero aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip. No medical supplies truck has entered the Gaza Strip,” she said.
“Speaking to doctors, they say that most of these injuries are very serious and that most of the injured are children, women and the elderly.”
In addition, the lack of fuel in the coastal enclave aggravated the situation. “Most Gaza hospitals may collapse and close if they do not receive fuel in the coming days,” said Khoudary.
On March 2, Israel blocked all humanitarian aid in Gaza after the expiration of the first phase of the ceasefire, cutting food, medications and fuel.
This has raised global conviction, the European nations warning that the blockade could violate international humanitarian law.
