Israel promises to capture large areas in a new Gaza – Politico ground assault

The Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Wednesday a military expansion further in Gaza to capture an “extensive territory” and transform it into buffer areas controlled by the Israeli.

The objective of the operation “is above all to increase the pressure for the release of all the hostages in the face of the refusal of Hamas,” wrote Katz in an article on X.

According to the Times of Israel, Katz said that the military would move to eraser areas “of terrorists and infrastructure, and will capture an extensive territory which will be added (to) the state of the security zones of Israel.”

The total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the start of the War of Israel-Hamas has now exceeded 50,000 after Israel broke up a cease-fire on March 18 with a wave of fresh strikes that killed hundreds, according to coastal enclave officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered strikes due to a lack of progress in talks to extend the ceasefire. Hamas sparked the war on a large scale with a violent attack on Israel in October 2023, during which its activists took hundreds of hostages.

Netanyahu should land in Budapest on Wednesday evening, despite an arrest warrant in circulation issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Hungarian service of RFE / RL reported on Tuesday evening that the Minister of Justice of Hungary, Bance Tuzson, told diplomats that Budapest, who promised not to enforce the mandate, withdraws from the ICC.