The military operation of Israel in the Gaza Strip extending to seize the “large areas”, says the Minister of Defense

Jerusalem (AP) – The military operation of Israel Gaza develops to seize “large areas,” said the Minister of Defense on Wednesday.

Israel’s offensive In the Palestinian territory, “relaxed to crush and clean the area” of the activists and “seize large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel,” said Defense Minister Israel Katz in a statement.

The Israeli government has long maintained a buffer zone just inside Gaza along its safety fence and has been widely widened since the start of the war in 2023. Israel says that the buffer area is necessary for its security, while the Palestinians consider it as a seizure of land which still shrinks the narrow coastal territory, which houses around 2 million people.

Katz did not specify which areas of Gaza would be entered during the enlarged operation, which, according to him, includes “in -depth evacuation” of the population of combat zones. His statement came after Israel ordered the complete evacuation of the southern city of Rafah and neighboring regions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ISRAEL aims to maintain an open but not specified security control of the Gaza Strip once he has achieved his goal of crushing Hamas.

The minister called on the residents of Gaza to “expel Hamas and return all the hostages”. The militant group still holds 59 captives, 24 of which are supposed to be still alive, after most of the others have been released in cease-fire agreements or other agreements.

“It’s the only way to end war,” Katz said.

The hostage families forum, which represents most families of captives, said it was “horrified to wake up this morning at the announcement of the Minister of Defense concerning the expansion of military operations in Gaza”.

The group said that the Israeli government “had an obligation to release the 59 hostages from Hamas captivity – to continue each possible channel to advance an agreement for their release”, and stressed that every passing day puts the lives of their loved ones.

“Their life is at stake, because more and more worrying details continue to emerge the horrible conditions in which they are held – chained, abused and desperately need medical care,” said the forum, who called the Trump administration and other mediators to continue putting Hamas to release the hosts.

“Our highest priority must be an immediate affair to bring all the hostages home – the living for rehabilitation and those who were killed for an appropriate burial – and put an end to this war,” said the group.

Israel continued to target the Gaza Strip, with air strikes, killing 17 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, hospital officials said.

Nasser hospital officials said the bodies of 12 people killed in a night air strike that had been brought to the hospital included five women, one of them pregnant and two children. Officials at the European Gaza Hospital said they had received five bodies of people killed in two separate air strikes.

The war began when activists led by Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mainly civilians and taking 251 hostages.

Israel’s offensive killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of strikes killed since a ceasefire ended about two weeks ago, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not say if those killed are civilians or fighters. Israel says he killed around 20,000 activists, without providing evidence.

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