The Israeli Defense Minister tried to increase the pressure on Hamas on Friday to release more hostages, saying that Israel was preparing for the installation of several territories in Gaza and enhanced the attacks of air, sea and land if the armed Palestinian group was not cooperating.
The statement of the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, followed the day after the ceasefire, which existed for more than two months, was broken down by the renewed Israeli bombing and limited land operations within Gaza. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed since Israel restarted the attacks on Tuesday, to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, which does not distinguish civilians and fighters.
“The more Hamas persists in his rejection, the more the territory will lose,” Mr. Katz said, demanding more hostage release.
On Friday morning there were no reports about the new attacks of Israeli with heavy victims in Gaza. The mediators were still trying to prevent the new escalation of violence to return the snowballs to the war to a fully extent. Hamas said on Friday that negotiations were to return to the certificate-which started in mid-January-yos always ongoing.
But Hamas reiterated that any agreement on the release of more hostages would have to lead to a permanent end of the war, for which Israel was distracted, while the Palestinian militant group is still in charge of Gaza.
In the past three days, the Israeli forces have bombed targets throughout the gauze, saying that they attack Hamas’ locations and operatives. The Israeli land troops seized a large corridor in the central gauze from which he retired during the interruption of the fire with the hamas, and expanded explosive raids in the northern and southern Gaza.
Hamas’ military response has been limited so far, although it is still believed that the group has commanded tens of thousands of armed fighters. For the first time in months, Hamas fired three rockets in Israel, but everyone was either intercepted or fell without causing victims, which is far from barracks they could collect in the early months of the war.
Israel hopes to force Hamas to release more of the remaining hostages seized in October 7, 2023, an attack that lit a war in Gaza. As many as 24 living prisoners – and the remains of more than 30 others – are still in Gaza, according to the Israeli government.
Even before the fire interruption this week, Israel blocked humanitarian aid in Gaza, preventing food and medicines from reaching Palestinians, who are still recovering from more than a year from hunger and war.
Mr. Katz threatened further procedures, including enhanced air attacks and expanding the liquid Israeli ground floor offensive. In the latest attacks, Israeli troops could only be pierced through the Palestinian cities in Gaza, divided the enclave into two or forcibly evacuated northern gauze massively, as they did during the 15-month campaign against Hamas.
Israel vowed that he would not end the war in Gaza without Hamas’ destruction. Hamas said he was ready to surrender civil responsibility in the enclave, but refused to dissolve his battalions of armed fighters or send his leaders to exile there.
Diplomats, including from the United States, hope that the mediator will at least partially contract both sides to interrupt the fire, release more hostages and allow humanitarian aid to start entering Gaza again.
Prior to the Israeli offensive, Steve Witkoff, an envoy of Trump’s administration, suggested an extension of the initial truce, which was in early March, in exchange for hostage release.
In the meantime, the United States and other intermediaries would work to find a “permanent solution for this unspeakable conflict,” said Mr. Witkoff’s office in a statement last week.
Israel said that he accepted Mr. Witkoff’s plan, which addressed Israeli demands for release more hostages without immediate commitment to the permanent end of the Gaza war. Hamas did not immediately agree to the agreement, but said earlier this week that he had considered the proposal.
In an interview on Thursday in Doha in Qatar, Husmam Badran, a high HAMAS official, suggested that the group is ready to show some flexibility compared to such an agreement by citing the potential publication of more hostages-how would they jump on initial conversations aimed at ending the war.
“The problem are not numbers,” Mr. Badran said the New York Times. “We act positively with any proposal that leads to the start of the negotiations” due to a permanent dedication, he added.
Adam Rasgon and Patrick Kingsley contribute to reporting.
