Location at a glance: Israel extends control in Gaza – protests against Hamas

Israel expands its military presence in the Gaza Strip. Before a controversial trip abroad to Hungary, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the army will recover into a corridor that separates the cities of Rafah and Chan Junis in the south of the coastal area. “We conquer the Morag route,” said the Israeli head of government in a video address in the evening. Morag was one of several Israeli settlements in the south of the Palestinian area that Israel had cleared in 2005.

The Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz had previously announced that the army would conquer extensive areas in the Gaza Strip, which should become Israeli “security zones”. The newspaper “Jerusalem Post”, citing the defense apparatus, reported that Israel’s army now control almost 30 percent of the Gaza Strip.

Israel increases pressure on Hamas until the host of hostages

“The only thing that can stop our further advance is the release of our hostages,” said Israel’s chief of staff Ejal Zamir Army. According to Israeli information, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip still have 24 living hostages in their violence, plus the remains of dozens of other hostages.

Protests against Hamas and War in the Gaza Strip

In Beit Lahia in the north of the Palestinian area, hundreds of people protested against the rule of Hamas and the Gaza War, as residents of the German Press Agency reported. The demonstrators, including children and women, asked the Islamist organization to retreat in the protest between house ruins. Palestinians “Hamas out” chant on videos that are supposed to circle on social media and show demonstration.

Hamas authority: Many deaths in attacks

According to the health authority controlled by the Hamas, more than 70 people were killed in the Israeli missions. The information does not differentiate between civilians and combatants and can hardly be checked independently.

According to the authority and Palestinian media reports, an Israeli air raid in the northern Gaza Strip was hit by a clinic of the UN Palestinian aid Unk. At least 19 people, including nine minors, were killed in the incident in Jabalija. According to Unrwa boss Philippe Lazzarini, there is also a two-week baby among the fatalities.

According to Palestinian information, domestic displaced persons were in the area of ​​the clinic. “According to the first reports, over 700 people were housed in the facility when it was hit,” said Lazzarini.

The Israeli army spoke of an attack on Hamas terrorists who were in a command center that was a “central meeting point for the terrorist organization”. From there, terrorist attacks on Israeli goals were planned. The military had taken measures before the attack to protect civilians.

Israel’s army surrounds the quarter in Rafah

According to its own information, Israel’s army converted a quarter in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. Israeli ground troops have been in use in the Al-Sultan district for around two weeks. The Israeli army recently asked the residents of the city and neighboring places to flee from there.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people in the south of the Gaza Strip fled in the past two days. “Large -scale Israeli bombing and soil surgery” also led to far -reaching destruction in the area around the border town of Rafah.

Israeli attacks in Syria

Israel’s Air Force flew again in the evening attacks on several destinations in Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights based in Great Britain, there are said to have been at least four dead and eleven injuries. As the Israeli military announced, the Syrian military airport in Hama in the west of the country and the so-called T4 base, another military airfield further south, were hit. Israel also attacked military infrastructure in the capital Damascus.

Netanyahu travels to Hungary

Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu traveled to Hungary to visit. It has been its first trip to Europe since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him in November due to alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza War. According to his office, Netanyahu will meet his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban. Details were initially not known – which should also be due to the sensitive character of the visit in view of the open arrest warrant.

Orban had demonstratively issued the invitation after issuing the arrest warrant. An arrest Netanyahus is therefore considered excluded. Hungary has ratified the statute of the ICC, but Orban’s government does not bound to its provisions. Critics accuse the right -wing populist Prime Minister that he had long hollowed out fundamental principles of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary and continues to continue this course. The EU has therefore withdrawn or frozen part of European funding.