JERUSALEM: Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuations of the population.
In a statement, Defence Minister Israel Katz said evacuations would take place from areas where there was fighting while urging Gazans to eliminate Hamas and return Israeli hostages as the only way to end the war.
He said the operation would clear out militants and infrastructure "and seize large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel".
The Israeli military had already issued evacuation warnings to Gazans living in some southern districts and Palestinian radio reported that the area around Rafah was almost completely empty following the evacuation orders.
Gaza's Health Ministry said 53 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Wednesday, with 19 people including children killed in a strike at a UN clinic being used to house displaced people.
Israel's military said it had struck a building previously used as a clinic that it said was serving as a Hamas command and control centre to plan attacks, and that the military had used surveillance to mitigate the risk to civilians. Hamas denied using the building and called the Israeli accusation it did so a "blatant fabrication".
Reuters video of the aftermath of the strike showed blood on a floor as rescue workers removed bodies on stretchers.
At the site of another strike in Khan Yunis, Rida al Jabbour held up a tiny shoe and pointed at a blood-spattered wall as she related how a neighbour had been killed along with her three-month-old baby.
"From the moment the strike occurred we have not been able to sit or sleep or anything," she said, describing how rescue workers were unable to separate the remains of those killed.
BUFFER ZONE
Katz's statement did not make clear how much land Israel intended to seize or whether the move represented a permanent annexation of territory, which would add further pressure on a population already living in one of the most crowded areas in the world.
According to the Israeli rights group Gisha, Israel has already taken control of some 62 square kilometres or around 17 per cent of the total area of Gaza, as part of a buffer zone around the edges of the enclave.
At the same time, Israeli leaders have said they plan to facilitate voluntary departure of Palestinians from the enclave after US President Donald Trump called for it to be permanently evacuated and redeveloped as a coastal resort under US control. — Reuters
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