BAITULMAQDIS – Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened Friday to annex parts of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas release the remaining Israeli hostages held in the war-battered Palestinian territory.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Thursday that 504 people had been killed since the bombardment resumed, more than 190 of them minors.
The death toll is among the highest since the war began more than 17 months ago with Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Katz vowed to step up the assault, using civilian as well as military “pressure points” to defeat Hamas.
“We will intensify the fight with aerial, naval and ground shelling as well as by expanding the ground operation until hostages are freed and Hamas is defeated, using all military and civilian pressure points.”
He said these included implementing President Donald Trump’s proposal for the United States to redevelop Gaza as a Mediterranean resort after the relocation of its Palestinian inhabitants to other Arab countries.
On Thursday, the Israeli military said troops had begun “conducting ground activity” in the Shabura area of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city near the Egyptian border.
It said it had also closed off the territory’s main north-south route as it expanded the ground operations which resumed on Wednesday. – AFP
