Israel has said it will keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, as it vowed to force Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages from the 7 October attacks.
Aid supplies including food, fuel, water and medicine have been blocked by Israel from entering Gaza since 2 March, more than two weeks before the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group with a return to air and ground attacks on the territory.
The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said on Wednesday that Gazawas becoming a “mass grave for Palestinians”.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it had converted 30% of Gaza into a buffer zone and that it had “achieved full operational control over several key areas and routes throughout the Gaza Strip”.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said: “Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population.”
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Another 13 people were killed in airstrikes overnight, with a well-known photographer, Fatema Hassouna, among those reported dead in the northern area of the strip.
Doctors and aid groups on the ground said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was becoming graver by the day. “The situation is the worst it has been in 18 months in terms of being deprived of your basic necessities and the resumption of hostilities and attacks against Palestinians in all of Gaza,” said Mahmoud Shalabi, a director at Medical Aid for Palestinians…
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“As long as our hostages are languishing in the tunnels, there is no reason for a single gram of food or any aid to enter Gaza,” the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on Wednesday.
Katz said Israel intended to eventually set up its own “civilian-based distribution infrastructure” for aid in Gaza, to prevent supplies falling into the hands of Hamas militants, but he gave no timelines or details of how it would be established.
Reports have suggested this could involve the Israel Defense Forces setting up and running logistics centres for aid, and vetted aid agencies being tasked with distributing it. However, the plan remains unclear and the UN is said to have so far refused to hand over the names of employees.
Efforts by mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the US to restore the collapsed ceasefire in Gaza and return the hostages have continued to hit stumbling blocks.
Katz said that no matter what deal was agreed, Israeli troops would remain in the buffer zones it had occupied in Gaza, as well as in neighbouring Syria and Lebanon.
Since resuming operations in March, Israeli troops have seized control of 30% of the Gaza Strip, establishing what they describe as an “operational security perimeter”. Hamas has demanded that any hostage deal must guarantee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza….
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The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it was not dragging its feet in the Gaza Strip and was continuing to ramp up pressure on Hamas to bring the terror group to agree to a hostage deal, but was not moving ahead with a major offensive just yet.
The Israel Defense Forces on March 18 resumed its attacks against Hamas with a surprise wave of airstrikes, ending a two-month ceasefire. Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed.
A major offensive, which is intended to defeat Hamas on the battlefield, would likely cause the ceasefire-hostage negotiations to completely collapse, according to the military. Such an offensive would also endanger the remaining 59 hostages still held by Hamas, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.
The IDF had set no deadline for when the major offensive would begin, and said it would be decided upon by the political leadership. Defense Minister Israel Katz has repeatedly threatened to launch a wide-scale offensive against Hamas if the hostages are not released soon.
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Hamas is rejecting a new Israeli proposal to pause the war in Gaza, free more Israeli hostages and negotiate the disarmament of Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, a Hamas official told NPR.
The Hamas official spoke on condition of anonymity because the group had not yet presented its formal response to ceasefire mediators.
Earlier Tuesday, officials involved in mediating Gaza ceasefire talks had expressed optimism that a deal could be reached within weeks, Egyptian mediators told NPR.
Mediators have feared that any potential temporary ceasefire could be shattered by Israel if the deal did not include U.S. guarantees for a permanent end to the war.
Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal presented to Hamas included a willingness to negotiate a permanent end of the war, but on condition of a new demand that Hamas, and all militant groups in Gaza, be disarmed. That’s according to Egyptian mediators, a senior Hamas official and an additional official involved in the talks….
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