Israel turns 30% of besieged Gaza into buffer zone

Israel has announced it had converted 30 percent of Palestine’s Gaza into a buffer zone as it pressed its unrelenting carnage, vowing to maintain its blockade on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had "achieved full operational control over several key areas and routes throughout the Gaza Strip".

"Approximately 30 percent of the Gaza Strip's territory is now designated as an Operational Security Perimeter."

It added that Israeli air strikes had hit "approximately 1,200 terror targets" and that "more than 100 targeted eliminations have been carried out" since March 18.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said this month that the military was leaving Gaza "smaller and more isolated".

Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed that military pressure was the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza.

'No aid for Gaza'

On Wednesday, Palestinian group Islamic Jihad released a video of an Israeli-German hostage, showing him appealing to Israeli authorities and US President Donald Trump to secure his release.

His family and Israeli media identified him as Rom Braslavski from Jerusalem.

In parallel to the Gaza carnage, Hamas said Israel had proposed a new 45-day ceasefire through mediators, which would include the release of dozens of hostages.

Netanyahu met hostage negotiators and security chiefs on Wednesday and "issued directives for the continuation of the steps to advance the release of our hostages," his office said in a statement.

The proposal also called for Hamas to disarm to secure a complete end to the war, the resistance group said.

A senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told AFP that the group was still preparing a response to Israel's document but insisted Hamas "weapons will not be subject to any negotiations".

Katz announced that Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the besieged territory of 2.4 million people.

Israel halted the entry of aid on March 2, exacerbating the territory's humanitarian crisis.

"Blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population," the defence minister said.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Israeli attacks and the aid blockade had transformed Gaza into a graveyard.

"Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance," said MSF coordinator Amande Bazerolle.

"With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages," she said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs gave a new estimate that "about half a million people have been newly displaced or uprooted once more" in Gaza since March 18, having earlier warned that Gaza was facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began.

Carnage

Israel has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in its carnage in besieged Gaza since October 2023.

It unilaterally ended the ceasefire on March 18, resuming its genocidal war, which reduced most of the blockaded enclave to ruins and displaced almost the entire population.

Tel Aviv also placed the strip under siege, blocking the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

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Source: TRT