Israel’s military operation in Gaza expanding to seize ‘large areas’

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JERUSALEM – Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip are expanding to seize the “big area”, while hospital officials in the Palestinian territory said that overnight, Israel’s strike killed more than 40 people, including nearly 12 children, by Wednesday, the defense minister said.

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Israeli Defense Minister Katz said in a written statement that Israel’s offensive on Palestinian territory “is expanding to crush and clean up militants” and seizing large areas that will be added to the security zone of the Israeli State. ”

The Israeli government has long maintained a buffer along its security fence, which has been greatly expanded since the war began in 2023.

Kaz did not specify which areas in Gaza will be detained in the expanded operation, which he said included “widespread evacuation” of the population from combat areas. His statement comes after Israel ordered the entire evacuation of the southern city of Rafa and nearby areas.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s goal is to maintain open but unspecified security controls on the Gaza Strip once the goal of crushing Hamas is achieved.

The minister called on Gaza residents to “deport Hamas and return all hostages”. The militant groups still hold 59 prisoners, 24 of whom remain alive, and the majority of the rest are released under a ceasefire agreement or other transactions.

“This is the only way to end the war,” Katz said.

Olga Cherevko, spokesman for the UN Office for Coordinating Human Affairs, said that since the ceasefire collapsed last month, Israel ordered people to move and expand its operations, with Gaza’s “no movement” area accounting for more than 60% of the strip.

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As aid groups provide assistance as permitted by Israel due to a one-month lockdown on Gaza. The “Not-driving” area includes the military zone of the Netzarim Corridor – an area carved by Israel, opening the north to the northern part of southern Gaza, with an expanded buffer zone and evacuation zone.

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The Hostage Family Forum, which represents the majority of the captured families, said, “It was shocked that the news of the military operation to expand Gaza was announced to the Minister of Defense this morning.”

The Israeli government “has an obligation to release all 59 hostages from Hamas captivity in pursuit of all possible channels to improve the release agreement.” They stressed that every day makes the lives of loved ones bigger.

“Their lives have been in balance as more and more disturbing details continue to emerge for the horrible conditions they are in – being bound, abuse and desperately in need of medical care,” the forum said.

“Our highest priority must be an immediate agreement to bring all hostages home – a life of recovery and those who have been killed for proper burial and end this war,” the group said.

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Children killed in strikes in United Nations buildings

Israel continued to target the Gaza Strip, killing 17 people overnight in the southern city of Khan Younis. According to hospital officials whose bodies were taken away, 15 other people were killed during a strike on the north of the Avenue on Wednesday.

Officials at Nasser Hospital said the bodies of 12 people killed overnight who were taken to the hospital include five women, one of whom is pregnant and two children. Officials at the European Hospital in Gaza said they received five bodies in two separate air strikes.

Later Wednesday, officials at Indonesian hospitals said 15 people, including nine children and two women, were killed in a Jabbaria refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, during an Israeli strike in the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency or North Eng-North.

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The Palestine Civil Defence said the building has been a near-terrestrial clinic and is now used to accommodate displaced people. It said the attack struck two rooms in the building and evacuated the bodies of seven people and 12 injured people.

Juliette Touma, a spokesman for the Bank of UNRWA spokesman, said the site was not a clinic function when it was hit, but was used as a shelter for displaced people, with about 735 people living there in about 160 households.

Although Medical Services warned of the dangers of the facility after Wednesday’s attack, many displaced families did not leave the site “just because they absolutely have no other place to go,” Touma said, adding that no HIV employees were killed or injured during the strike.

The Israeli military said it attacked Hamas members in the region, adding that they hid inside the “command and control centers used for coordination” and served as a central gathering point for the Palestinian group.

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The European hospitals said it was killed in the bodies of eight people on Wednesday in Khan Younis, while Zawaida in central Gaza killed three more people to reach the AQSA hospital.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and hijacking 251 hostages.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the Israeli attack killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of people who died since the end of the ceasefire about two weeks ago. Israel said it has killed about 20,000 militants and provided no evidence.

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