Illustrative image (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on April 2 that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was expanding its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
In a statement, Katz said that Israeli troops will move to clear areas “of terrorists and infrastructure, and capture extensive territory that will be added to the State of Israel’s security areas.” The minister also called on Palestinians in Gaza “to act now to overthrow Hamas and return all the hostages.”
At least 59 Israeli hostages, including 58 of the 251 captured during the October 7 Hamas-led surprise attack on Israel of 2023, are still in Gaza. At least 35 of them have been confirmed dead by the IDF.
Ahead of Katz’s announcement, the IDF deployed another division to southern Gaza as part of the expansion of the offensive against Hamas.
In addition, Palestinian media reported a large wave of strikes across Gaza overnight, and later said troops were advancing in Rafah in the southern part of the Strip. According to the reports, the bombings killed 41 people, including women and children.
The decision to expand the offensive in Gaza was met with a backlash from the families of the remaining hostages in the Strip.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that families “were horrified to wake up this morning to the defense minister’s announcement that the military operation in Gaza would be expanded for the purpose of ‘capturing extensive territory.’”
“Has it been decided to sacrifice the hostages for the sake of ‘territorial gains?’” the statement reads. “Instead of securing the release of the hostages through a deal and ending the war, the Israeli government is sending more soldiers into Gaza to fight in the same areas where battles have already taken place repeatedly.”
More than 1,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been reportedly since the IDF renewed its offensive on Gaza on March 18, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that was brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar last January.
Last week, reports indicate that some progress was made by mediators and that there was some hope that the ceasefire in Gaza would resume. However, the lack of any real resistance from Hamas and a series of protests against the group in the Strip have apparently encouraged Israel to press on with its offensive.
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‘land stealing genocidal ethno-supremacist’ is just a stereotype, we swear!
15 palestinian medics were found in a gaza mass grave . this is trumps war now . the west bank refugee camps are destroyed by the hour . lebanon gets bombed too . the radical israeli superiority mindset is toxic . the will never be happy unless all are slaves to thier empire . toxic !
‘suddenly and for no reason at all…’
un is silent controlled financially and by sanctions by the warmongers and killer decision making leaders in the us, uk and eu. they consider everyone is a slave to their finance, diktat and rules and are people are owned by the state. just look on ukraine men are owned by the state.
despite all zio propaganda and theyr us and eu proteges, this was always the zio plan, to kill, destroy and to expell all gaza palestinians to grab it for theyr greater israel project.
sadly only iran, houthi and hisbollah gave some support resistance, while aegypt, lebanon, jordan and golf monarchys didnt support with anything, not even little covered smalls arms support.
simple. sunni rulers are crypto jews. saudi arabia and the uae are ruled and owned by jews. that’s precisely why they hate shia muslims so much as they’re aware of this reality.
so, israeli is invading gaza and killing thousands of civilians without any resistance by hamas? because some dozens israeli hostages are still not ‘released’? and this is justifying the havoc made by idf i repeat, without any resistance??
it’s been almost 2 years, israel can’t even control a major part of gaza. it’s over for you zionists. allah is the best of planners.
even inside the sin-a-gogue, they are a total mess