JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would control the whole of Gaza despite mounting international pressure that forced it to lift a blockade on aid supplies which has left the enclave on the brink of famine.
The Israeli military, which announced the start of a new operation on Friday, warned residents of the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday to evacuate to the coast immediately as it prepared “an unprecedented attack”.
“There is huge fighting going on, intense and huge, we are going to control all parts of Gaza,” Netanyahu said in avideo message in which he pledged to achieve “complete victory” with both the release of the 58 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza and the destruction of Hamas.
Even as the military warned of the attack, Reuters reporters saw aid trucks heading towards northern Gaza after Netanyahu was forced to agree to allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza in response to global concern at the reports of famine.
Netanyahu said U.S. senators he has known for years as supporters of Israel, “our best friends in the world”, were telling him the scenes of hunger were draining vital support and bringing Israel close to a “red line, to a point where we might lose control”.
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“It is for that reason, in order to achieve victory, we have to somehow solve the problem,” he said, in a message apparently addressed to far-right hardliners in his government who have insisted aid be denied to Gaza to stop it reaching Hamas.
Overnight, Israeli air strikes killed at least 20 Palestinians, according to local medics, as the military said it hit 160 targets across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including anti-tank positions, underground infrastructure and a weapons storage point.
The Israeli military said forces engaged in a new campaign dubbed “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” were active across Gaza, seeking to eliminate Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages seized in October 2023.
Netanyahu’s office announced the easing of the aid blockade, saying Israel would let in limited amounts of food into Gaza.
Palestinian media said 50 trucks carrying flour, cooking oil and legumes would be allowed into the small coastal territory later on Monday, while Israeli media said nine trucks with baby food were expected to enter in coming hours.
Israel has faced rising international pressure over the blockade on humanitarian deliveries it imposed in March, shortly before breaking a two-month-old ceasefire, as aid agencies warn of famine in the enclave of 2.3 million people.
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Nahed Shheibar, owner of a transport company involved in aid distribution, urged Gazans not to intercept or loot the trucks.
Undercover raid
Separately, residents and medics said an Israeli undercover force killed a Hamas leader in a raid in the south as the army proceeded with its new ground offensive against Hamas in the enclave.
Ahmed Sarhan, a commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group allied with Hamas, was killed in the raid by forces that entered the heart of the city of Khan Younis disguised as displaced persons, according to the medics.
Residents said Sarhan fought the force before he was killed, and that the Israelis detained his wife and children beforeretreating in a bus towards the eastern border with Gaza under a cover of fire from planes.
“As you see, they entered, opened a hole in the wall, entered the house and executed the father and took an 11-year-old child and his mother, and left,” said an eyewitness, Mohammed Sarhan, referring to the PRC commander.
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Escalating military campaign
Palestinian health officials said more than 500 people have been killed in attacks in the past eight days as Israel has stepped up its military campaign.
Israel made its announcement on aid after sources on both sides reported no progress in a new round of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar.
Former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who left the government last year after falling out with Netanyahu, said the fact Hamas remained in Gaza represented a “resounding failure” for the Israeli campaign and reflected the government’s failure to plan for the future of the enclave.
If a plan to replace Hamas had been made, “there would have been no debate about whether the aid would fall into the hands of Hamas, because it would no longer control Gaza”, Gallant said in a statement.
Netanyahu said ceasefire discussions touched on a truce and hostage deal as well as a proposal to end the war in return for the exile of Hamas and the demilitarisation of Gaza - terms previously rejected by Hamas.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri blamed Israel for the lack of progress at the Doha talks and said escalating its offensive would be “a death sentence” for remaining hostages.
Israel’s ground and air war has devastated Gaza, displacing nearly all its residents and killing more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
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