Israel to ramp up airstrikes in ‘next stage’ of war as Gazans urged ‘head south’
Israel is planning to ramp up its attacks on the Gaza Strip as it prepares for the next stage of its war on Hamas, an Israeli military spokesman has said.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Saturday (October 21) the military has been trying to create optimal conditions beforehand.
He said: “We will deepen our attacks to minimise the dangers to our forces in the next stages of the war. We are going to increase the attacks, from today.”
The Israeli military chief repeated his call for people in Gaza City to head south for their safety.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Cabinet late on Saturday to discuss the expected invasion, according to Israeli media.
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Israel has been bombing the Gaza Strip since Hamas gunmen launched a bloody, surprise attack on October 7, with an Israeli ground invasion long anticipated.
Tel Aviv has vowed to crush Hamas, but has provided few details as to what it envisions for Gaza if it succeeds.
Cabinet minister, Yifat Shasha-Biton, said there was broad consensus in the government that there will have to be a “buffer zone” in Gaza to keep Palestinians away from the border.
She told Channel 13 TV Israel needs to put some distance between the border and Israeli communities, adding no decisions had been made as to its size or other specifics.
Israel said on Friday (October 20) it doesn’t plan to take long-term control over the Palestinian territory, which is home to 2.3 million people.
Meanwhile, the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened on Saturday to allow a trickle of desperately needed aid into the besieged Palestinian territory for the first time since Israel sealed it off and began pounding it with airstrikes.
Only 20 trucks were allowed in, an amount aid workers said was insufficient to address the unprecedented humanitarian crisis. More than 200 trucks carrying 3,000 tons of aid have been waiting nearby for days.
Gaza residents have been rationing food and drinking dirty water while hospitals have said they are running low on medical supplies and fuel for emergency generators.
Five hospitals have stopped functioning due to fuel shortages and bombing damage, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
The head of the UN’s World Food Program, Cindy McCain, said: “The situation is catastrophic in Gaza. We need many, many, many more trucks and a continual flow of aid.”
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Rear Admiral Hagari said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “under control”, adding the aid would be delivered only to southern Gaza, where the army has ordered people to relocate.
Tel Aviv had said it was concerned arms could be smuggled into Gaza via aid convoys and all Israeli hostages taken by Hamas would have to be returned first. Two American hostages were reported to have been released on Friday.
But a week of high-level diplomacy, including visits to the region by US President Joe Biden and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, helped secure the trickle of aid.
The trucks were carrying 44,000 bottles of drinking water, which is enough for 22,000 people for a single day.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said: “This first, limited water will save lives, but the needs are immediate and immense.”
An Israeli ground assault would likely lead to a dramatic escalation in casualties on both sides in urban fighting. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the war — mostly civilians slain during the Hamas attack.
More than 4,300 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. This includes the disputed toll from a hospital blast.
Over a million people have been displaced in Gaza with many heeding Israel’s orders to evacuate from north to south within the sealed-off coastal enclave. But Israel has continued to bomb areas in southern Gaza.
A senior Israeli military official said the air force will not hit the area where aid is being distributed unless rockets, which militants are relentlessly launching at Israel, are fired from there.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “It’s a safe zone.”
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