The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the soldiers will expand his operation to Gaza and seize the “large areas” of the territory – incorporating them in what he described as “security areas”.
In a statement on Wednesday, Katz declared the extended operation aimed to “destroy and eliminate the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure” and would require a large -scale evacuation of the Palestinians.
This occurs after local hospitals said that at least 15 Palestinians had been killed on the territory overnight.
There is a feeling more and more than a new major Israeli soil offensive is looming in Gaza, with extensive air strike reports and bombing along the Egyptian border.
This week, the Israeli army ordered around 140,000 people in Rafah to leave their homes and have issued new evacuation orders for some parts of northern Gaza.
Israel has already considerably widened a buffer area around the edge of Gaza during the war and took control of a lands corridor through its center.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive renewed on March 18, blaming Hamas for rejecting a new American proposal to extend the ceasefire and release the 59 hostages still in captivity in Gaza.
Hamas, in turn, accused Israel of having violated the initial agreement they had accepted in January.
The hostage and families who have disappeared in Israel said they were “horrified to wake up” to the news of the extended military operation. In a statement, the group urged the Israeli government to prioritize the guarantee of all the hostages always organized in Gaza.
In his declaration announcing plans to seize more territory, Katz also urged Gazans to act to withdraw Hamas and free Israeli hostages, without suggesting how they should do.
The humanitarian situation across Gaza has worsened considerably in recent weeks, Israel refusing to authorize the aid to the Gaza Strip since March 2 – blocking the longest aid since the start of the war.
Last month, the UN announced that it reduced its operations to Gaza, one day after eight Palestinian doctors, the first six stakeholders in the Civil Defense and a member of the UN staff were killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza.
The Israeli army launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross -border attack on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, more than 50,399 people were killed in Gaza during the war that followed.
