Defence Minister Israel Katz’s comments come weeks into a renewed offensive by the military on the war-battered territory, which has displaced hundreds of thousands, while an aid blockade has revived the spectre of famine for its 2.4 million people.
French President Emmanuel Macron meanwhile said that France plans to recognise a Palestinian state in the “coming months”, a move that risks antagonising Israel which insists such moves by foreign states are premature.
Katz said that “large areas are being seized and added to Israel’s security zones, leaving Gaza smaller and more isolated”, during a visit to the newly announced Morag Corridor between the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis.
Katz emphasised that Israel would keep increasing pressure on Gaza “until the hostages are freed and Hamas is defeated”.
Katz also said that Israel was encouraging plans for “voluntary emigration… in accordance with the vision of the US president, which we are working to implement”.
US President Donald Trump had earlier this year proposed a plan to develop Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” while displacing its population elsewhere.
Gaza’s civil defence agency meanwhile said an Israeli air strike on a residential building in Gaza City killed at least 23 people, most of them children or women, while the military said it targeted a “senior Hamas” militant.
Israel resumed intense strikes on Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. Efforts to restore the truce have so far failed.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Wednesday that at least 1,482 Palestinians have been killed in the renewed Israeli operations, taking the overall death toll since the start of the war to 50,846.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians. (AFP)
