Israel announces a plan to restore Gaza City in another escalation of the war
Tel Aviv, Israel (AP)-Israel said early Friday that it was planning to take over Gaza City in another escalation of its 22-month war with Hamas. The decision, which was taken after a meeting late at night for senior officials, came despite the escalation of international calls to end the war and protests by many in Israel who fear the remaining hostages that Hamas maintains.
The air and land war in Israel killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza, explained most of the population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the region to starvation. Another major ground process will certainly exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously made clear more severe plans in an interview with Fox News, saying that Israel had planned to control both Gaza. Israel is already controlling three quarters of destroyed lands.
The final decision, which came after the security cabinet in Israel met during the night, without this, and may partially aim to pressure Hamas to accept the ceasefire on the conditions of Israel.
It may also reflect the reservations of the Supreme General in Israel, who has warned that he will be exposed to the remaining twenty or so from the living hostages that Hamas maintains and give more army to the Israeli army after nearly two years of regional wars.
“The army will prepare to control Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat areas,” the Netanyahu office said in a statement after the meeting.
“Nothing remains for the occupation.”
Israel has repeatedly bombed in Gaza City and carried out many raids there, only to return to different neighborhoods over and over again while re -assembled fighters. Today it is one of the few Gaza fields that have not been converted into an Israeli buffer zone or placed under eviction orders.
The main terrestrial process can replace tens of thousands of people and disrupt the efforts made to deliver food to hunger -stricken lands.
It is not clear that the number of people residing in the city, which was the largest Gaza before the war. Hundreds of thousands of Gaza City fled under eviction orders in the opening weeks of the war, but many of them returned during the ceasefire at the beginning of this year.
The Palestinians were already expecting more suffering before the decision, killing at least 42 in Israeli air strikes and shooting on Thursday, according to local hospitals.
“Nothing remains for the occupation,” said Mia Heilla, who lives in a displacement camp. “Gaza remains.”
“We don’t want to keep it.”
He was asked in the interview with Fox News before the security cabinet meeting if Israel would “control both Gaza,” Netanyahu replied: “We intend to ensure our security, to remove Hamas (from) there.”
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security environment,” Netanyahu said in the interview. “We want to hand them over to the Arab forces that will be governed properly without threatening us and giving gas a good life.”
The Israeli military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, warned against the occupation of Gaza, saying that it would be at risk of hostages and put more pressure on the army after nearly two years of war, according to Israeli media reports on the closed security cabinet meeting.
The militants led by Hamas kidnapped 251 people and killed about 1200 on October 7, 2023, an attack that led to war. Most of the hostages were issued in a ceasefire or other deals, but 50 are still inside Gaza, about 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.
Nearly twenty relatives of the hostages from southern Israel sailed towards the maritime border with Gaza on Thursday, where they broadcast messages from loudspeakers.
Yuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier held in Gaza, said of the boat that Netanyahu extends the war to satisfy the extremists in his ruling alliance. In the far right, Netanyahu’s allies want to escalate the war, transfer most of Gaza’s population to other countries and re -establish the Jewish settlements that were dismantled in 2005.
“Netanyahu only works for himself,” Cohen said.
The Palestinians were killed and wounded looking for food
The Israeli military attack killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which does not say the number of fighters or civilians. The ministry is part of the government run by Hamas and employed by medical professionals.
The United Nations and independent experts view the ministry’s numbers as the most reliable estimates of losses. Israel opposed them without providing its own losses.
Of the 42 people who were killed on Thursday, at least 13 were looking for assistance in an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza, where the UN aid convoys were submerged regularly by desperate guards and gravel. Two others were killed on the roads leading to the nearby sites run by the Israeli Humanitarian Foundation, which is an American contractor, according to Nasser Hospital, who obtained the bodies.
GHF said that there are no violent incidents in or near its locations on Thursday. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army. Military Zone, known as the Morag Corridor, outside the borders of independent media.
Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks while they were heading to GHF sites and in the chaotic scenes around the United Nations convoys, most of which are steeped by deception and crowds of hungry. The United Nations Human Rights Office, witnesses and health officials say that the Israeli forces have opened fire regularly towards the crowds dating back to the month of May, when Israel raised a full siege for two months.
The army says it only launched warning shots when the crowds approach its forces. GHF says that armed contractors only used pepper spray or shot in the air on some occasions to prevent deadly seals.
Israel and GHF face increasing criticism
Doctors Without Borders, a well -known medical charity from its French abbreviation, published a violent report condemning the GHF distribution system. “This is not help,” he said. “It is an organizer.”
Doctors Without Borders is running two health centers near GHF sites in southern Gaza and said it treated 1,380 people who were wounded near the sites between June 7 and July 20, including 28 people who died upon their arrival. Among them, at least 147 have suffered from gunshot wounds – including at least 41 children.
Doctors Without Borders said that hundreds of injuries in the physical attack from the chaotic stampede of food in the locations, and multiple patients suffering from severe strict eyes after spraying them from a close distance with pepper spray. He said that the cases I saw were only a small part of the total losses related to the GHF sites.
The report said: “The level of mismanagement, chaos and violence in GHF distribution sites is either promoted either a reckless neglect or the trap of death intentionally designed.”
“The accusations are false and exciting” and accused the MSF “the amplification of the campaign of misinformation,” which Hamas publishes.
The United States and Israel helped establish a GHF system as an alternative to the UN aid delivery system that has preserved Gaza for decades, accusing Hamas of help. The United Nations denies any collective transformation by Hamas. He accuses GHF of forcing the Palestinians to risk their lives to get food and say that he is progressing in Israel’s plans for more mass displacement.
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This story was corrected after a previous version said that 13 people were killed to GHF sites.
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Shorrava from the Der Monastery, Gaza, a sector and a carrier from Ottawa, Ontario. The Associated Press Joseph Vedman from Jerusalem contributed and contributed Natalie Milzer from Nahriya.
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