Israeli officials say the government has approved a plan to take control of the whole Gaza Strip and stay there for an unknown amount of time. They say this is to put more pressure on Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, to free hostages and agree to stop fighting — but only on Israel’s terms.
The plan also includes forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move to southern Gaza. The officials who shared this information didn’t want their names used because it’s about military plans.
On Sunday, Israel’s top military leader, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said: “Israel would ‘operate in additional areas’ in Gaza and continue to strike militant infrastructure.”
He also said the army is calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers to help. Right now, Israel already controls about half of Gaza. This includes a buffer zone along the border with Israel and three wide paths across the area. These paths have pushed Palestinians into smaller and smaller parts of Gaza, where living conditions are terrible.
Israel has also blocked most aid from entering Gaza since early March. This has made the humanitarian crisis even worse. There’s not enough food, clean water, or medicine. Many people are going hungry, and some are looting to survive.
Since Israel restarted airstrikes on March 18, more than 2,600 people have been killed, many of them women and children, according to health officials in Gaza. There was a ceasefire before, and both sides were supposed to talk about ending the war. But that didn’t work. Israel says it won’t stop until Hamas is destroyed. Hamas says they won’t agree unless the war starts winding down.
The war began when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel says 59 hostages are still in Gaza, but about 35 of them are believed to be dead.
