Israel says turned 30% of Gaza into buffer zone, vows to block aid

By AFP/Jay Deshmukh and Alice Chancellor

Israel announced Wednesday it had converted 30 percent of Gaza into a buffer zone as it pressed its unrelenting military offensive, vowing to maintain its blockade on humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered security chiefs and negotiators to keep pressing for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, where Israel resumed air and ground attacks on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

The United Nations said an estimated 500,000 Palestinians have been displaced since the end of the ceasefire, triggering what it has described as the most severe humanitarian crisis the territory has faced since the war started after the Hamas October 7, 2023 attacks.

The Israeli military said that it had "achieved full operational control over several key areas and routes throughout the Gaza Strip".

"Approximately 30 percent of the Gaza Strip's territory is now designated as an Operational Security Perimeter."

It added that Israeli air strikes had hit "approximately 1,200 terror targets" and that "more than 100 targeted eliminations have been carried out" since March 18.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said this month that the military was leaving Gaza "smaller and more isolated".

Israeli officials have repeatedly said that military pressure was the only way to force Hamas to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza.

'No aid for Gaza'

On Wednesday, Palestinian group Islamic Jihad released a video of an Israeli-German hostage, showing him appealing to Israeli authorities and US President Donald Trump to secure his release.

His family and Israeli media identified him as Rom Braslavski from Jerusalem, who was abducted at the Nova music festival during the Hamas attack on Israel.

In parallel to the Gaza offensive, Hamas said Israel had proposed a new 45-day ceasefire through mediators which would include the release of dozens of hostages.

Netanyahu met hostage negotiators and security chiefs on Wednesday and "issued directives for the continuation of the steps to advance the release of our hostages," his office said in a statement.

The proposal also called for Hamas to disarm to secure a complete end to the war, the group said.

A senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Mardawi, told AFP that the group was still preparing a response to Israel's document but insisted Hamas "weapons will not be subject to any negotiations".

Katz announced that Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the besieged territory of 2.4 million people.

Israel halted the entry of aid on March 2, exacerbating the territory's humanitarian crisis.

"Blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population," the defence minister said.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Israeli military operations and the aid blockade had transformed Gaza into a graveyard.

"Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance," said MSF coordinator Amande Bazerolle.

"With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages," she said.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs gave a new estimate that "about half a million people have been newly displaced or uprooted once more" in Gaza since March 18, having earlier warned that Gaza was facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began.

ICJ hearings

Israel controls the entry of aid and supplies to Gaza.

On April 28, the International Court of Justice is to open hearings on Israel's humanitarian obligations towards Palestinians.

The UN General Assembly approved a resolution in December requesting that the court in The Hague give an advisory opinion on the matter.

It calls on the ICJ to clarify what Israel is required to do to "ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population".

Although ICJ decisions are legally binding, the court has no concrete way of enforcing them.

Israel continued to pound Gaza on Wednesday.

At least 11 people were killed in air strikes, 10 of them in an attack on Gaza City, the civil defence agency said.

The renewed assault has killed at least 1,652 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported, bringing to 51,025 dead, mostly civilians, since the war erupted.

The 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.