The Israeli army’s operation in the Gaza Strip will be expanded, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday, specifying that the seized territories will become part of a buffer zone, Israeli media reported.
Israel seeks to seize “extensive territory”
The minister said troops would move forward to clear the territories of terrorists and infrastructure. The plan is to seize a large area that will be added to Israel’s security zone.
The operation will also include a “large-scale evacuation of the people of Gaza from the war zones,” Katz said in a statement. He also noted that the military operation will be expanded to “crush and clear the territory of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure, while capturing large areas that will be included in Israel’s security zone.”
An Israeli military spokesman told Arab media late on the evening of April 1 that residents of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah had been ordered to leave their homes and move north.
Earlier, media reported that Israeli authorities demanded that the Palestinian Hamas movement release 11 hostages in order to establish a 40-day truce in the Gaza Strip.
On March 18, Israel resumed strikes on the Gaza Strip. The country’s prime minister explained that Tel Aviv resumed the operation because of Hamas’ refusal to accept the US plan to extend the ceasefire.
Israel launched Operation Iron Swords in the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in which the militants killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 others hostage. The two sides signed a ceasefire agreement earlier this year.
The first phase of the truce was to exchange 33 Israeli hostages for 110 Palestinian life prisoners and 1,000 Gaza detainees. Later, Israel was to begin reducing its presence on the enclave’s border with Egypt and withdraw troops from densely populated areas of Gaza. However, the sides did not agree on the second stage of the truce.
322 children killed since Israel’s renewed Gaza onslaught
At least 322 children have been killed and 609 others injured since Israel resumed its military offensive in the Gaza Strip a fortnight ago, according to the UN’s International Emergency Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
According to the BBC, quoting UNICEF, “relentless and indiscriminate bombing has resumed in Gaza, killing or maiming 100 children a day in the 10 days to March 31.”
Many of the dead children have already been forced from their homes, taking refuge in makeshift tents or damaged houses, the report adds.
Since the war began more than 18 months ago, 15,000 children have been killed, more than 34,000 injured and nearly a million displaced, according to UNICEF.
