TEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country’s forces would take control of the entire Gaza Strip, after his government agreed to end a monthslong blockade by allowing limited aid to enter the enclave.
Netanyahu’s remarks on Monday followed the Israeli military’s announcement of what it called a major expansion of ground operations in Gaza and hundreds of airstrikes in recent days targeting what the military said was Hamas’s infrastructure.
Netanyahu said Israel would assert control in Gaza to pressure Hamas—designated a terrorist group by the U.S.—to return the remaining hostages and demilitarize.
The prime minister has come under pressure to address the worsening humanitarian situation for the enclave’s roughly two million people. On Sunday, his office said Israel would allow “a basic quantity of food to be brought in.”
Five trucks carrying baby food and other desperately needed aid entered the territory via the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, Cogat.
Netanyahu said the decision came after pressure from Israel’s “closest friends in the world,” adding that its backers in the U.S. Senate told him they couldn’t tolerate the images of extreme hunger, and that could affect their support.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump and his national- security team are speaking with Israel and Hamas to end the fighting and secure the release of hostages.
The leaders of the U.K., France and Canada condemned Israel’s expansion of its military operations in Gaza, and said the government’s restrictions on aid risked breaching international humanitarian law. They also threatened to impose targeted sanctions for settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu responded on X that Israel is fighting for its survival against terrorists and that ending the war now would invite more attacks like the Hamas-led one on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the current conflict. Around 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage in that attack.
“The war can end tomorrow if the remaining hostages are released, Hamas lays down its arms, its murderous leaders are exiled and Gaza is demilitarized,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s decision to allow in aid passed without a vote in the security cabinet, an Israeli official said. Some far-right lawmakers have said they oppose
The Israeli military recently launched hundreds of airstrikes, destroying many buildings in Gaza. ABIR SULTAN/ EPA/ SHUTTERSTOCK
any aid’s entering Gaza as long as there are hostages there.
Aid groups have warned for weeks that stockpiles brought in during a cease-fire that collapsed in March were running dangerously low, and severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and clean water were imminent. A global-hunger watchdog, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership, said last week that nearly half a million people in Gaza face starvation, while the entire population faces high levels of food insecurity.
Since the cease-fire ended, Israel has ratcheted up pressure on Hamas with attacks on its leadership, as well on infrastructure. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that a recent airstrike in the south of the enclave likely killed Mohammed Sinwar, who had succeeded his brother, killed last year, at the top of the militant group in Gaza.
Israel’s military began activating troops Sunday for its expanded ground operations. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said tens of thousands of reservists were mobilized for the effort.
Effie Defrin, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said troops would bisect the Gaza Strip and move civilians to make way for the current operations. On Monday afternoon, Israel’s military ordered Khan Younis, one of Gaza’s largest cities, and nearby areas to be evacuated in advance of an offensive. Much of Gaza’s population has been displaced many times during the 19-month war.
Mostafa Aqad, a 26-year-old resident of Khan Younis, said the sound of gunfire and explosions in his neighborhood Monday morning caused people to scramble for cover. “It was different this time,” he said. “There were clashes and gunfire coming from every direction.”
Palestinian health authorities said hundreds of people have been killed in strikes since Friday, and that more than 53,000 have been killed since the start of the war, though their figures don’t say how many were combatants.
コメント