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18-04-2025
JERUSALEM/ GAZA: Israel’s Defence minister has said troops will remain in so-called security zones they have established by seizing large areas of Gaza even after an end to the war.
Israel Katz said the zones would provide a “buffer” to protect Israeli communities “in any temporary or permanent situation”, and that “tens of per cent” of the Palestinian territory had been added since the Israeli offensive resumed three weeks ago.
Israel would continue its six-week blockade of humanitarian aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages, he said, despite the UN warning of “devastating” consequences.
On Wednesday Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) became the latest international organization to sound alarm at the impact of Israel’s campaign, saying that Gaza had been “turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance”.
“We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the entire population in Gaza,” Amande Bazerolle, the charity’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, said.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said more than 1,650 people have been killed since the war resumed on 18 March.
Hospital officials said at least 24 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Wednesday.
The majority of those reported killed were in Gaza City, in the north.
They included 10 members of the Hassouna family, mostly children and women. One of them was Fatema Hassouna, a young writer and photographer.
The media has asked the Israeli military for comment on the strike.
The UN says 69% of the territory is now under active Israeli military evacuation orders, within a “no-go” zone running along the borders with Israel and Egypt and the Wadi Gaza valley south of Gaza City, or both. Some 500,000 people have been newly displaced or uprooted once more, with no safe place to go, it estimates.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said it has killed “hundreds of terrorists” in strikes while troops have advanced into several areas in the north and the south. It has established a new corridor that cuts the southern city of Rafah off from neighboring Khan Younis and has designated 30% of Gaza as an “operational security perimeter”.
On Wednesday, Israel Katz said Israel’s policy was to “first and foremost make every effort to bring about the release of all hostages” still being held there and to “build a bridge to defeat Hamas later on”.
“Unlike in the past, the IDF is not evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized,” he said.
“The IDF will remain in the security zones as a buffer between the enemy and (Israeli) communities in any temporary or permanent situation in Gaza as in Lebanon and Syria.”
Hamas has insisted Israeli forces must withdraw from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire.
“Any truce lacking real guarantees for halting the war, achieving full withdrawal, lifting the blockade, and beginning reconstruction will be a political trap,” the group said on Wednesday, according to media.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel, which represents many hostages’ relatives, called Katz’s plan an “illusion”.
“They promised that the hostages come before everything. In practice, however, Israel is choosing to seize territory before the hostages,” it said. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
