Middle East crisis live: Gaza population to be moved as part of ‘intensive’ offensive, Netanyahu says | World news
Netanyahu says new Gaza offensive will be 'intensive'
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a new offensive in Gaza will be an intensive military operation aimed at defeating Hamas, but stopped short of detailing just how much of the enclave’s territory would be seized, Reuters reports.
“Population will be moved, for its own protection,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. He said Israeli soldiers won’t go into Gaza, launch raids and then retreat. “The intention is the opposite of that,” he said.
Earlier today two Israeli officials said Israel’s security cabinet had approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified amount of time.
Key events
Summary
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a new offensive in Gaza will be an intensive military operation aimed at defeating Hamas that would involve moving the population of Gaza. He stopped short of detailing just how much of the enclave’s territory would be seized following earlier reports that Israel could aim to capture the whole of the Gaza Strip.
Two Israeli officials said earlier today that Israel’s security cabinet had approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified amount of time. The two officials said the plan would involve the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza.
A senior Israeli defence official said there was a “window of opportunity” for a hostage deal in Gaza during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region next week. It allows for the possibility that Israel might agree to a ceasefire in the meantime.
Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip even if there is another hostage deal is reached, far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich insisted as he called on Israelis to embrace the word “occupation.” “We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip. We will stop being afraid of the word ‘occupation,’” Smotrich told journalist from Israel’s Channel 12.
An Israeli campaign group said the plan would mean “sacrificing” hostages held in the Palestinian territory. “The plan approved by the cabinet deserves to be called the ‘Smotrich-Netanyahu Plan’ for sacrificing the hostages,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
Yemen’s Houthis said the US carried out strikes in and around Sana’a, after the Iran-backed rebels claimed a missile strike on Israel’s main airport yesterday. The Houthi-run Saba news agency said the strikes included two on Arbaeen Street in the capital and the airport road, blaming them on “American aggression”. Saba said 16 people were wounded.
Netanyahu says new Gaza offensive will be 'intensive'
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a new offensive in Gaza will be an intensive military operation aimed at defeating Hamas, but stopped short of detailing just how much of the enclave’s territory would be seized, Reuters reports.
“Population will be moved, for its own protection,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. He said Israeli soldiers won’t go into Gaza, launch raids and then retreat. “The intention is the opposite of that,” he said.
Earlier today two Israeli officials said Israel’s security cabinet had approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified amount of time.
There was one arrest at a protest outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset today, according to the Times of Israel.
Demonstrators were protesting against Benjamin Netayahu’s government and for the return of the remaining 59 hostages trapped in Gaza.
Police forcibly dispersed protesters who were blocking the road leading to the prime minister’s office.
peaking to Israel’s Channel 12, protesters said they showed up to demonstrate over a number of issues, including the failure to recover the hostages, the mass call-up of IDF reservists, and the treatment of the country’s educators amid ongoing wage disputes.
People attend a protest against Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in support of the release of all hostages left in Gaza. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to drag the US into “disaster” in the Middle East, warning against any attempt to attack Iran, AFP reports.
“Netanyahu is directly MEDDLING within the US Government to DRAG it into another DISASTER in our region,” Araghchi said on X, warning against “ANY mistake against Iran”.
France has condemned the Houthi strike against Israel’s Ben Gurion airport yesterday.
“The Houthi attacks against Israel are unacceptable and can only fuel high regional tensions, further delaying an end to the conflict. They must cease immediately,” a statement from the French foreign ministry said.
“France reiterates its commitment to Israel’s security and reaffirms the right of the Israeli people to live in peace and security, as well as its commitment to regional stability.”
“The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, through its diplomatic and consular network, remains attentive to the situation of French citizens present in Israel, whether residents or passing through.”
An Israeli parliamentary committee is debating a law that would impose an 80% tax on non-government organisations that receive the majority of their funding from foreign entities, Reuters reports.
Under the proposed law, these NGOs would not be able to petition Israeli courts. Israel’s finance minister, though, would be able to grant an exemption from the tax.
The debate in the Knesset’s constitution, law and justice committee was at times heated and divided along coalition lines. The panel is preparing the bill for a first reading in the main plenum.
“This law will preserve a Jewish state and a democratic regime, and will block improper foreign interference,” said Ariel Kallner, the bill’s sponsor, during the debate.
Opposition politicians criticised the proposed law, saying the state was trying to stifle voices, including the media, that don’t agree with Israel’s policies. Some said that if the government sought to prevent foreign influence, then companies should also be targeted.
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, sent a letter signed by nine NGOs to the head of the committee, urging the bill be halted.
“This bill is a direct assault on civil society, the rule of law, and the basic constitutional structure of Israel’s democracy,” the letter said. “It threatens the rights of individuals and communities and seeks to silence legitimate dissent under the guise of sovereignty.”
AFP has spoken to the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who has criticised an Israeli plan to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza at hubs controlled by the military.
“We cannot and will not do something which is fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” Jan Egeland said.
He said “the United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have said no to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military.”
Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicise the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south, a scheme where people will be screened, where it’s a completely inoperable system.”
“That would force people to move to get aid, and it would continue the starvation of the civilian population,” he said, adding: “We will have no part in that.”
“If one side in a bitter armed conflict tries to control, manipulate, ration aid among the civilians on the other side, it is against everything we stand for,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Israeli scheme “will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies.”
A defence official has also briefed Associated Press, saying that the new plan to intensify the assault on Gaza wouldn’t begin until after Donald Trump wraps up his expected visit to the Middle East this month — allowing for the possibility that Israel might agree to a ceasefire in the meantime.
It is not clear if this is the same official who has briefed Reuters (see our previous post).
Trump visit offers 'window of opportunity' for hostage deal, says Israeli official
A senior Israeli defence official said on Monday there was a “window of opportunity” for a hostage deal in Gaza during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region next week.
However, Reuters reports, if no deal is agreed Israel would begin its new operation in the enclave.
“If there is no hostage deal, Operation ‘Gideon Chariots’ will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its goals are achieved,” he said, following a decision by the security cabinet to approve an expanded operation.
Israel aims to 'conquer' Gaza, officials say
Jason Burke
Israel is to expand its military operations in Gaza in the coming weeks, with the aim of “conquering” the territory and establishing a “sustained presence” there, Israeli officials have said.
The plan, which was unanimously approved at a security cabinet meeting late on Sunday, goes beyond any aims so far outlined by Israel for its offensive in the devastated Palestinian territory and is likely to prompt deep international concern and fierce opposition.
Officials told reporters in Israel that the plan would involve a new and intense offensive leading to “the conquest of Gaza and the holding of the territories, moving the Gaza population south for their protection [and] … powerful blows against Hamas”.
After a fragile ceasefire collapsed in mid-March, Israel renewed its bombardment of Gaza, with troops reinforcing kilometre-deep “buffer zones” along the perimeter of Gaza and expanding their hold over much of the north and south of the territory.
The European Union has called for restraint from Israel after the country’s security cabinet approved the expansion of military operations in Gaza.
“The European Union is concerned at the planned extension of the operation by Israeli forces in Gaza, which will result in further casualties and suffering for the Palestinian population. We urge Israel to exercise the utmost restraint,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said.
AP provides some analysis of Israel’s new plan to expand its operations in Gaza – and potentially capture the entire territory.
The new plan, which two officials said was meant to help Israel achieve its war aims of defeating Hamas and freeing hostages held in Gaza, also calls for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move to Gaza’s south — which would likely lead to their forcible displacement and exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after a decades-long occupation and then imposed a blockade on the territory along with Egypt. Capturing and potentially occupying the territory again for an indefinite period would not only further dash hopes for Palestinian statehood, it would embed Israel inside a population that is deeply hostile to it and raise questions about how Israel plans to govern the territory, especially at a time when it is considering how to implement US president Donald Trump’s vision to take over Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces said a strike on Gaza’s Khan Younis yesterday destroyed a Hamas rocket position.
The IDF posted a video of the strike on X. It said secondary explosions in the clip indicated “the presence of rockets prepared for launch toward Israeli territory”. The Guardian could not independently verify the footage or the IDF’s claim it had destroyed a Hamas position.
Overnight attacks on the Khan Younis refugee camp killed at least 11 people including three babies up to a year old, Gazan officials said. It is not clear if the strike in the IDF footage is related to these casualties.
Bezalel Smotrich: Israelis should embrace the word 'occupation'
Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip even if there is another hostage deal is reached, far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has insisted as he called on Israelis to embrace the word “occupation.”
“We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip. We will stop being afraid of the word ‘occupation,’” Smotrich told Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal during a conference organised by Israel’s right-wing Besheva newspaper.
“We are finally taking control of all humanitarian aid, so that it does not become supplies for Hamas. We are separating Hamas from the population, cleansing the Strip, returning the hostages — and defeating Hamas,” he said.
“The only way to release the hostages is to subdue Hamas. Any retreat will bring about the next October 7,” he said. “Once as we occupy and stay [in Gaza] we can talk about sovereignty. But I did not demand that this be included among the goals of the war. First, we will defeat Hamas and prevent it from existing.”
AFP provides some more detail on Israel’s plans to intensify its operations in Gaza, with the official saying Israel was planning the “conquest” of the territory.
The Israeli official said the plan for expanded operations “will include, among other things, the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories, moving the Gaza population south for their protection”.
The majority of Gaza’s population had resided in the north of the territory, particularly Gaza City, and nearly all have been displaced at least once since the war began.
The cabinet, which includes prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers, “unanimously approved” the plan aimed at defeating Gaza’s rulers Hamas and securing the return of hostages held in the territory.
The official source said the plan included “powerful strikes against Hamas”, without specifying their nature.
