Israel to take over Gaza says Netanyahu as aid starts to flow

Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will take control of the entire Gaza Strip, as limited aid starts to enter and the UK, France and Canada threaten sanctions against Israel.

Palestinians flee the northern Gaza Strip amid massive Israeli strikes. Picture: AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country’s forces would take control of the entire Gaza Strip, after his government agreed to end a months-long blockade by allowing limited aid to enter the enclave.

Netanyahu’s remarks on Monday followed the Israeli military’s announcement of what it called a major expansion of ground operations in Gaza and a wave of hundreds of air strikes in recent days targeting what the military said was Hamas’s infrastructure.

Netanyahu said Israel would assert control over the entire territory to pressure Hamas to return the remaining hostages and force the US-designated terrorist group to demilitarise. “We are going to take over all the areas of the Strip,” he said on social media.

The prime minister has come under pressure to address the worsening humanitarian situation for the enclave’s roughly two million people. His office said Sunday that Israel would allow “a basic quantity of food to be brought in” to avoid a starvation crisis.

Netanyahu said the decision followed pressure from Israel’s “closest friends in the world,” adding that the country’s backers in the US Senate told him they couldn’t tolerate images of extreme hunger coming out of Gaza and that could affect their continued support.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said after Netanyahu announced the expanded campaign that President Trump and his national security team are engaging in talks with both Israel and Hamas to end the fighting and secure the release of all hostages.

“The president has made it very clear he wants to see this conflict in the region end,” she said.

Palestinians move with their belongings through Jabalia as they flee the northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP.

The leaders of the UK, France and Canada in a joint statement criticised Israel’s expansion of its military operations in Gaza and said the government’s restrictions on aid risked breaching international humanitarian law. They also threatened to impose targeted sanctions for settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank.

“If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response,” the statement said.

The Israeli prime minister’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the statement.

Israel’s decision to allow in aid passed without a vote in the security cabinet, according to an Israeli official. Some far-right politicians have said they oppose any aid entering Gaza as long as there are hostages there.

Aid groups have warned for weeks that stockpiles brought in during the ceasefire were running dangerously low and severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and clean water were imminent. A global hunger watchdog, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership, said last week that nearly half a million people in Gaza already face starvation.

Since the collapse of a ceasefire in March, Israel has ratcheted up pressure on Hamas with attacks on its military and political leadership as well infrastructure. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said Sunday that a recent air strike in the south of the enclave had likely killed the group’s leader Mohammed Sinwar. Sinwar had replaced his brother, who Israeli forces killed last year, at the top of the militant group in Gaza.

Israel’s military began activating troops on Sunday for its expanded ground operations. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters Monday that tens of thousands of reservists were mobilised for the effort.

Effie Defrin, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said the military would bisect the Gaza Strip and move civilians to make way for the current operations. On Monday afternoon, Israel’s military ordered Khan Younis, one of Gaza’s largest cities, and nearby areas to be evacuated in advance of an offensive. Much of Gaza’s population has already been displaced many times throughout the 19-month war.

Mostafa Aqad, a 26-year-old resident of Khan Younis, said the sound of gunfire and explosions in his neighbourhood Monday morning caused people to scramble for cover. “It was different this time,” he said. “There were clashes and gunfire coming from every direction.” Palestinian health authorities said hundreds of people have been killed in strikes since Friday, and that more than 53,000 have been killed since the start of the war, though their figures don’t say how many were combatants. The conflict was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others were taken hostage inside Gaza.

Israel banned the entry of all aid and other goods into the Gaza Strip in early March. The Israeli government has said Hamas steals aid and uses it to support its war effort, which the group denies.

The US said earlier this month that it was working on a plan, supported by Israel, to resume aid from a number of distribution sites throughout Gaza. Under the plan, the Israeli military would secure the perimeter of the sites while private security firms would ensure the safety of aid workers as they enter them and distribute aid.

Eden Bar Tal, director general of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters on Monday that those distribution sites should be operating in a matter of days. Meanwhile, trucks loaded with aid will begin entering the Strip immediately with items including baby food, flour and some medical supplies, Bar Tal said.

The plan to establish distribution sites has met criticism from the United Nations and other aid groups, which say it violates their principles and could put civilians at risk. A spokeswoman for the U.N.’s humanitarian office in Gaza said it had been approached by Israeli authorities about resuming aid in the interim but details were still being worked out.

Hamas released a statement last week claiming they had released their last living American hostage taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Edan Alexander, as a goodwill gesture to Trump. A Hamas official said the understanding was that his release would result in the entry of humanitarian aid in Gaza and negotiations for a permanent ceasefire.

As part of the understanding between the US and Hamas for Alexander’s release, American officials promised to push the Israelis harder to let food and medicine enter the Strip, although no specific quantities were agreed upon, according to people familiar with the negotiations. When the aid didn’t enter after the release, the US and Qatar pressed the Israelis to restart it, people said.

US officials said Alexander was released by Hamas without any conditions.

Dow Jones