Israel defence minister threatens to annex parts of Gaza unless Hamas releases remaining hostages
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Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the military would step up strikes from the air, sea and land.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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JERUSALEM - Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has threatened to annex parts of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas militants release the remaining Israeli hostages held in the war-battered Palestinian territory.
“I ordered (the army) to seize more territory in Gaza... The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel,” he said in a statement on March 21.
Should Hamas not comply, Mr 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”.
Israel’s renewed air and ground offensive in Gaza shattered the relative calm that had reigned in the territory since a Jan 19 ceasefire and drew widespread condemnation.
Israel resumed intensive bombing of Gaza
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on March 20 that 504 people had been killed since the bombardment resumed
The death toll is among the highest since the war began more than 17 months ago with Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Mr Katz vowed to step up the assault, using civilian as well as military “pressure points” to defeat Hamas.
“We will intensify the fight with aerial, naval and ground shelling as well as by expanding the ground operation until hostages are freed and Hamas is defeated, using all military and civilian pressure points.”
He said these included implementing President Donald Trump’s proposal for the United States to redevelop Gaza as a Mediterranean resort after the relocation of its Palestinian inhabitants to other Arab countries.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on March 21 that France opposes any kind of annexation by Israel of the Gaza Strip or the West Bank.
“We have a very clear vision of the future of the region – a solution of two (Israeli and Palestinian) states living side-by-side in peace,” he told reporters in the eastern city of Dijon.
On March 20, the Israeli military said troops had begun “conducting ground activity” in the Shabura area of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city near the Egyptian border.
It said it had also closed off the territory’s main north-south route as it expanded the ground operations which resumed on March 19. AFP
