By James Mackenzie and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the population.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops were seizing an area he called the Morag Axis, a reference to a former Israeli settlement once located between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, some 3-4 kilometres from the southern border.
“Because we are now dividing the Strip and we are increasing pressure step by step so they will give us our hostages,” he said in a video message.
He said the move, which would cut off Rafah from Khan Younis, would give Israel control of a second axis in southern Gaza in addition to the so-called “Philadelphi Corridor”, running along the border with Egypt, which Israel sees as a key line preventing the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
Separately, the Israeli military said troops had completed the encirclement of the Tel al-Sultan area near Rafah and killed dozens of militants. It had also found two rockets as well as a launcher aimed at Israeli territory.
But there was no sign of an end to the operation and the head of the Israeli military, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said it would continue “at a deliberate and determined pace”.
“The only thing that can halt our further advance is the release of our hostages,” he said in a statement.
Earlier on Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that troops would be widening their operation in Gaza to clear out militants and infrastructure “and seize large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel”.
The Israeli military had already issued evacuation warnings to Gazans living in some southern districts and Palestinian radio reported that the area around Rafah was almost completely empty following the evacuation orders.
“As of today, 64% of Gaza is under active forced displacement orders or falling within the so-called ‘buffer zone’,” said Jonathan Whittall, the top U.N. aid official for Gaza and the West Bank.
“Nowhere and no one is safe in Gaza.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 60 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, with 19 people including children killed in a strike at a U.N.
clinic being used to house displaced people.
Israel’s military said it had struck a building previously used as a clinic that it said was serving as a Hamas command and control centre to plan attacks, and that the military had used surveillance to mitigate the risk to civilians.
Hamas denied using the building and called the Israeli accusation that it did so a “blatant fabrication”.
Reuters video of the aftermath of the strike showed blood on a floor as rescue workers removed bodies on stretchers.
At the site of another strike in Khan Younis, Rida al-Jabbour held up a tiny shoe and pointed at a blood-spattered wall as she related how a neighbour had been killed along with her three-month-old baby.
“From the moment the strike occurred we have not been able to sit or sleep,” she said, describing how rescue workers were unable to separate the remains of those killed.
BUFFER ZONE
Katz’s statement did not make clear how much land Israel intended to seize or whether the move represented a permanent annexation of territory, which would heighten pressure on a population already living in one of the most crowded areas in the world.
But the push reinforced Palestinian fears of a permanent displacement and the imposition of full-scale Israeli military control over the coastal enclave.
According to Israeli rights group Gisha, even before the operation Israel had already taken control of some 62 square kilometres or around 17% of the total area of Gaza, as part of a buffer zone around the edges of the enclave.
Israeli leaders have said they plan to facilitate voluntary departure of Palestinians from Gaza, after U.S.
President Donald Trump called for it to be permanently evacuated and redeveloped as a coastal resort under U.S. control.
“It seems like Netanyahu will not stop his war on Gaza until we are displaced,” said Amer al-Farra, who said he had been displaced eight times during the war.
“With God’s will we will remain steadfast.”
Israeli leaders have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, which has controlled the enclave since 2007, and the expanded operation appeared at least partly aimed at increasing civilian pressure on its leaders.
“I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to eliminate Hamas and return all the kidnapped,” Katz said in his statement.
“This is the only way to end the war.”
WAR EXPANDS
Israel resumed airstrikes in Gaza on March 18, after two months of relative calm during a U.S.-backed truce to allow the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since and Israel has also cut off aid to the enclave, saying much of it was being taken by Hamas.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemns the reported killing of more than 1,000 people since the truce collapsed, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.
Guterres is also increasingly concerned about inflammatory rhetoric on the seizure of land by Israel.
“All parties must comply fully with international law at all times. Civilians must be respected and protected. The denial of lifesaving aid must end,” Dujarric told reporters.
Efforts led by Qatari and Egyptian mediators to get talks aimed at ending the war back on track have so far failed to make progress and the military’s return to Gaza has fuelled protests in Israel by families and supporters of some of the hostages.
As the operation in Gaza has escalated, Israel has also hit targets in south Lebanon and Syria, with a strike on a Hezbollah commander in a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday that further strained fraying ceasefire agreements which largely halted fighting in January.
The head of Israel’s domestic intelligence service Ronen Bar said there was “a direct link” between the operation in Gaza and the strikes in Beirut.
Israel invaded Gaza after thousands of Hamas-led gunmen stormed communities in southern Israel in an attack that killed 1,200 people according to Israeli tallies, and saw 251 taken as hostages.
The Israeli campaign has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, and ravaged the Gaza Strip, forcing almost the entire population of 2.3 million from their homes.
(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Alex Richardson, Aidan Lewis, Gareth Jones and Daniel Wallis)
