Israeli Defence Minister threatens to seize parts of Gaza
The Israeli Defence Minister has issued Hamas an ultimatum regarding the remaining hostages with the army poised to seize parts of Gaza if their demands aren’t met. Follow the updates.
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Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to annex parts of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas militants release the remaining Israeli hostages held in the war-battered Palestinian territory.
The warning came as Israel stepped up the renewed assault it launched earlier this week, shattering the relative calm that had reigned in the war-battered territory since a January 19 ceasefire.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said that 504 people had been killed since the bombardment resumed, one of the highest tolls since the war began more than 17 months ago with Hamas’s attack on Israel.
“I ordered (the army) to seize more territory in Gaza … The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel,” Katz said in a statement.
Should Hamas not comply, Katz also threatened “to expand buffer zones around Gaza to protect Israeli civilian population areas and soldiers by implementing a permanent Israeli occupation of the area”.
AFP images from northern Gaza Friday showed donkey-pulled carts piled high with belongings as residents fled their homes along rubble-strewn roads.
Israel resumed intensive bombing of Gaza on Tuesday, citing deadlock in indirect negotiations on next steps in the truce after its first stage expired early this month.
Its resumption of large-scale military operations was co-ordinated with US President Donald Trump’s administration but drew widespread condemnation.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed concern about the government’s actions in a video statement on Thursday, saying it was “unthinkable to resume fighting while still pursuing the sacred mission of bringing our hostages home”.
Thousands of protesters have rallied in Jerusalem in recent days, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of resuming military operations without regard for the safety of the hostages.
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, 58 are still held by Gaza militants, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
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HAMAS FIRES BACK
Hamas said it fired rockets at Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv in its first military response to the growing civilian death toll from Israel’s resumption of air and ground operations in Gaza.
Israel said it had closed off the territory’s main route as troops expanded ground operations that shattered the ceasefire.
The armed wing of Hamas said it fired rockets at Israel’s commercial hub of Tel Aviv on Thursday in response to what it called “massacres against civilians” in Gaza.
“The (Ezzedine) Al-Qassam Brigades bombarded the city of Tel Aviv deep inside the occupied territories with a barrage of M90 rockets in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians,” it said in a statement. Israel’s army said it intercepted one projectile fired from Gaza, while two others fell in an open area.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 504 people had been killed so far in the Israeli assault, including more than 190 children. Its previous death toll was at least 470.
Gaza rescuers said at least 10 more people were killed in a pre-dawn bombing near Khan Yunis on Thursday.
The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to Israel’s “massacres” of Gaza civilians.
The Israeli army said it intercepted one projectile fired from Gaza and that two others struck an uninhabited area.
At the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, grieving families knelt by the bodies of their loved ones enveloped in bloodstained white shrouds.
“We want a ceasefire! We want a ceasefire!” one of them, Mohammed Hussein, told AFPTV, appealing for the international community to stop the killing.
“We are defenceless Palestinian people,” he added.
Palestinians were seen fleeing south along Salaheddin Road near the Nusseirat refugee camp atop donkey-drawn carts piled high with belongings.
“Over the past 24 hours, IDF soldiers have begun a targeted ground operation in the central and southern Gaza Strip in order to expand the security zone between the northern and southern parts,” army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.
“Israeli Forces bombardment continues from air & sea for the third day,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. “Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again & again going through their worst nightmare.”
Israel’s military said Thursday that troops had resumed ground operations in the area of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, while continuing activity in other parts of the territory.
“Over the past few hours, IDF (army) troops began conducting ground activity in the area of Shabura in Rafah. As part of the activity, the troops dismantled … terrorist infrastructure,” the army said in a statement, adding that “simultaneously, IDF troops are continuing ground activity in northern and central Gaza.”
AIR RAID SIRENS SOUND IN JERUSALEM
Air raid sirens rang out in Jerusalem on Thursday, AFP journalists reported, as the Israeli army said that a projectile had been launched from Yemen.
“Sirens sounded in a number of areas in Israel following a projectile that was launched from Yemen.
Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Thursday for the second time within a day, after air raid sirens sounded in several areas including Jerusalem.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in a number of areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (air force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
AFP journalists in Jerusalem had reported air raid sirens wailing in the city. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the launch, but it comes after Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels had threatened to escalate attacks in support of Palestinians following Israel’s renewed attacks on the Gaza Strip this week.
‘CRIME THAT MUST BE STOPPED’: IRAN SLAMS US HITS ON YEMEN
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that deadly US strikes on the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen were a “crime that must be stopped”.
The Houthis targeted ships in the Red Sea after the start of the Gaza war on October 7, 2023 and until a January ceasefire, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.
But last week they threatened to renew attacks on Israeli shipping over Israel’s aid blockade on the Palestinian territory, triggering the first US strikes on Yemen since President Donald Trump took office in January.
“This attack on the people of Yemen, on Yemeni civilians, is … a crime that must be stopped,” Khamenei said in a video published on his website.
The United States said its strikes on Yemen killed several top Houthi officials, while the Houthi-run health ministry said they left dead 53 people and wounded nearly 100.
Iran has condemned the latest US strikes on Yemen, and on Thursday, the foreign ministry called them, along with Israel’s deadly strikes on Gaza, examples of “war crimes”.
In the video, Khamenei called Israel’s latest strikes on the Gaza Strip a “catastrophic crime” and said the United States “shares responsibility”.
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