Israel’s defence minister said he had instructed the military to “seize more ground” in Gaza and threatened to annex part of the territory unless Hamas released 59 Israeli hostages still held in the devastated territory.
Israel Katz’s warning on Friday came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intensified the new offensive launched on Tuesday, when a wave of airstrikes shattered the truce that had brought a fragile and relative calm since mid-January.
Further “non-stop” attacks took place overnight across much of Gaza. “It’s all day and all night. Drones, planes, artillery, tanks … all the time. It’s as bad as it’s ever been,” said one aid worker now based in Gaza City.
After retaking part of the strategic Netzarim corridor that divides Gaza’s north from south, Israeli troops have advanced towards the northern town of Beit Lahiya and into the southern border city of Rafah.
Israeli officials have escalated their threats in recent days, calling on Palestinians in Gaza to overthrow Hamas or face the consequences.
“I ordered [the army] to seize more territory in Gaza,” Katz said in a statement. “The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel.”
Katz also threatened “to expand buffer zones around Gaza to protect Israeli civilian population areas and soldiers by implementing a permanent Israeli occupation of the area”, should Hamas not comply.
The permanent establishment of wide buffer zones in Gaza, particularly along its northern perimeter, has long been thought by observers to be an objective of many in the Israeli security establishment and government.
The Trump administration reiterated this week its support for Israel, with the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, saying: “The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages there would be all hell to pay.”
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Thursday that 504 people had been killed since the bombardment resumed, one of the highest tolls since the war began more than 17 months ago with Hamas’s attack on Israel. More than 100 have been killed since then and many more injured, Palestinian medical officials said.
Amjad Shawaa, the head of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, said: “This time it is very, very bad. It is very intensive and very scary. We don’t know when we could be hit. We worry always about our loved ones. Everything is very uncertain and then there are these threats that Israel will expand its operations. This is a suffocation, a psychological condition that is very hard.”
The IDF said the new strikes were against “terrorist” targets, including a “Hamas military site in northern Gaza where preparations were being made to fire projectiles” and “several vessels in the coastal area of the Gaza Strip … intended for use in terrorist operations by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad [armed group]”.
It gave new evacuation orders for northern coastal areas, displacing thousands more people. The UN estimates that 124,000 people have been displaced in Gaza since Tuesday, about one in 20 of the population.
Preliminary investigations have found that an explosion that killed a UN staffer in Gaza and seriously injured four others earlier this week was caused by a tank shell, aid officials told the Guardian. The IDF has denied all responsibility for the explosion at a UN guesthouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah.
A three-phase ceasefire was agreed in January but Israel refused to begin talks on the implementation of a second phase, which was supposed to lead to a return of all hostages, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent end to hostilities.
Instead, Israel proposed a new plan, reportedly put forward by the US envoy Steve Witkoff, involving a 30- to 60-day truce and the release of all remaining hostages. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners – a key component of the first phase.
Hamas said on Friday it was still debating Witkoff’s proposal and other proposals made by intermediaries, including Egypt. On Thursday, the group fired rockets at Tel Aviv, the coastal Israeli city and commercial hub, in its first military response to Israel’s offensive. One was intercepted by air defence systems, while two hit an uninhabited area, Israel’s military said.
The new violence in Gaza comes against a backdrop of internal turmoil in Israel, where thousands of protesters have rallied in recent days, accusing the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of seeking to undermine Israel’s democratic system and resuming military operations without regard for the safety of the hostages in order to bolster his political position.
On Friday, Israel’s supreme court ordered a temporary halt to the government’s dismissal of Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, until an appeal could be heard before 8 April. Netanyahu previously cited “mistrust” to justify his sacking of Bar but Israel’s attorney general has ruled that a dismissal by the cabinet has no legal basis.
A recent Shin Bet report on the 7 October Hamas attack acknowledged the service’s failures but also accused Netanyahu’s government of pursuing policies that established some of the conditions for the attack.
Before the IDF’s offensive, Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, one of the largest providers of food aid in the strip, said on Friday it had only enough flour to distribute for the next six days.
About 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, died in the surprise attack by Hamas in October 2023. The ensuing Israeli offensive into Gaza has killed more than 49,000 people, mostly civilians.
