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JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the military was “dissecting” the Gaza Strip and seizing territory to pressure Hamas into freeing hostages still held in the territory.
It came as rescuers said 34 people were killed in continued Israeli strikes on the territory, including on a UN building.
The military is “dissecting the (Gaza) Strip and increasing the pressure step by step so that (Hamas) will return our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement, adding that Israel “is seizing territory, striking terrorists, and destroying infrastructure.”
He added that the army is “taking control of the ‘Morag Axis’,” a strip of land that is expected to run between the southern governorates of Khan Yunis and Rafah.
The name of the axis refers to a former Israeli settlement that was evacuated when Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier said Israel would bolster its military presence in the Palestinian territory to “destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”
The operation would “seize large areas that will be incorporated into Israeli security zones,” he said in a statement, without specifying how much territory.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said an Israeli strike that targeted a UN building “housing a medical clinic in Jabalia refugee camp” killed at least 19 people, including nine children.
The Israeli army said it struck Hamas militants “inside a command and control center” in north Gaza’s Jabalia. It separately confirmed to AFP the building housed a UN clinic.
The Palestinian foreign ministry, based in the occupied West Bank, condemned the “massacre” at the clinic run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, and called for “serious international pressure” to halt Israel’s widening offensive.
Israel has on several occasions conducted strikes on UNRWA buildings housing displaced people in Gaza, where fighting has raged for most of the past 18 months.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter — a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
Israel also carried out deadly air strikes in southern and central Gaza on Wednesday. The civil defense said dawn strikes killed at least 13 people in Khan Yunis and two in Nuseirat refugee camp.
In February, Katz announced plans for an agency to oversee the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians from the territory.
That followed Israel’s backing of a proposal from US President Donald Trump for the United States to take over the territory after relocating its 2.4 million Palestinian inhabitants. The proposal outraged Gazans and drew widespread international condemnation.
Israel resumed intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 before launching a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire.
An Israeli group representing the families of hostages still held in Gaza said they were “horrified” by Katz’s announcement of expanded military operations.
“Has it been decided to sacrifice the hostages for the sake of ‘territorial gains?’” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum asked in a statement.
At least 1,066 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed military operations, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
That took the overall toll to at least 50,423 since the war began with Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, according to Israeli figures.
Hunger loomed in Gaza City as bakeries closed due to worsening shortages of flour and sugar since Israel blocked the entry of supplies from March 2.
“I’ve been going from bakery to bakery all morning, but none of them are operating, they’re all closed,” Amina Al-Sayed told AFP.
On Sunday, Netanyahu offered to let Hamas leaders leave Gaza but demanded the group abandon its arms.
Hamas has signalled willingness to cede power in Gaza but calls disarmament a “red line.”
Egypt, Qatar and the United States are attempting to broker a new ceasefire and secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages.
A senior Hamas official said Saturday the group had approved a new ceasefire proposal, while Netanyahu’s office said Israel had submitted a counteroffer. The details remain undisclosed.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Wednesday.
The visit drew condemnation not only from Hamas but also from neighboring Jordan, which acts as custodian of the holy site, as well as Qatar and other governments.
Ben Gvir has repeatedly challenged the longstanding convention that Jews may visit but not pray at the compound, stoking Palestinian fears about Israeli intentions.