Location at an overview: Media: Israel wants to take the majority of Gaza quickly

According to matching media reports, Israel’s military plans to take three quarters of the sealed -up Gaza Strip within a few weeks. According to the plans, it would only take two months for 75 percent of the coastal area to be conquered, the “Times of Israel” reported, citing the military. So far, the army has been checking around 40 percent of the area. The Palestinian civilian population should be pushed together to a quarter of the sealed coastal area in order to free Gaza from Islamist Hamas, the “Wall Street Journal” also reported.

The Israeli forces had recently started a new major offensive in Gaza. The military has now laid all of its regular infantry and armored brigades in the coastal strips, reported Israeli media. Hamas is under great pressure, said chief of staff Ejal Zamir on Sunday during a visit to the city of Chan Junis in southern Gazas. The aim of intensifying the fighting is to achieve the declared war goals: to completely defeat the Hamas and to free hostages.

When Israel’s military started a ground invasion in Gaza for the first time after the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, the killing of as many terrorists as possible was the focus of the strategy, the “Times of Israel” wrote. However, since no political alternative to Hamas was created, it was quickly strengthened again in the respective areas. Now Israel’s army is changing tactics, the focus is now on the conquest of areas. The army will destroy everything that it sees as an infrastructure used by Hamas, the “Wall Street Journal” quoted the military.

Large parts of the Gaza Strip have already been devastated by the war, which has been going on for more than one and a half years. The Hamas had built an estimated 900 kilometers of tunnels under the coastal area, but according to Israel’s army, only 25 percent have been destroyed, the “Times of Israel” wrote. General chief of staff Zamir emphasized: “This is not an endless war. We want to end it by reaching his goals. We want to defend the Hamas decisively.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had recently announced that the entire Gaza strip was taken.

Massive international criticism of Israel

There is a massive criticism of Israel’s approach in the coastal area, where around two million Palestinians live and dozens of deaths are reported every day. Federal Foreign Minister Johann WadePhul called the situation in Gaza “unbearable” in the ARD “Report from Berlin”. He speaks with Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar almost every day. He had now told him again that “there must be a quick, effective delivery of relief goods”.

“On the one hand, we stand by the state of Israel, we are responsible for him and on the other hand we are of course the basic value of humanity and of course see the suffering of these people,” said the CDU politician. The government of Spain called for an international weapon embargo against Israel to end the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and the war. There is also increasing criticism in the Israeli population: only recently participants in Tel Aviv have recently asked for an end to the war.

US security companies should distribute relief supplies

In March, Israel had blocked all aid deliveries to Gaza and shortly afterwards ended the ceasefire with Hamas. This should increase the pressure on Hamas to leave the last hostages released. Israel claimed that there was no lack of relief goods. The government accuses Hamas to steal it to make money what Hamas denies. UN representatives also say that Israel has not submitted any evidence of this. After printing from international allies, the country finally picked up the blockade.

For a few days now, Israel has been leaving some relief supplies into the war zone again, which, according to UN, is far from being sufficient. UN General Secretary António Guterres recently spoke of the “cruelest phase” of the war. The entire population of Gaza is threatened by a famine.

According to media reports, a new mechanism supported by the USA should start today to distribute relief goods. For this purpose, distribution centers in the south and in the center of the Gaza Strip are to be operated by US security companies in the future. Israel wants to deal with the UN and other international helpers so aid organizations.

Criticism of Israel’s reorganization of care

A representative of every Palestinian family should go to one of the centers every five days to pick up an aid package, it said. The United Nations and aid organizations that have rejected a participation in the plan consider this too dangerous. Because he demands from the Palestinians that they have to on the way to the distribution centers through combat areas. This also violates their neutrality principles because Israel controls help.

In the meantime, according to Israel, further deliveries arrived in the competitive area on Sunday. 107 trucks with relief goods such as flour and other foods had driven in the coastal strips via the Kerem Schalom border crossing, the responsible Israeli authority Cogat said. The truck loads that have been brought in in the past few days are only a “teaspoon” of the necessary help, complained beforehand. Most recently there were reports on chaotic scenes in the distribution of help and looting.