TEL AVIV: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would control the whole of Gaza despite mounting international pressure that pushed it to lift a blockade on aid supplies that has left the enclave on the brink of famine.
The Israeli military, which announced the start of a new operation last Friday, warned residents of the southern city of Khan Younis on Monday to evacuate to the coast immediately as it prepared "an unprecedented attack".
"There is huge fighting going on, intense and huge, we are going to control all parts of Gaza... but we have to do it in a way that we won't be stopped," Netanyahu said in a video message. He said Israel would achieve "complete victory" with the release of the 58 captives.
Even as the military warned of the attack, Reuters reporters saw aid trucks heading towards northern Gaza after Netanyahu was forced to agree to allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza in response to global concern at the reports of looming famine.
Netanyahu said US senators he has known for years as supporters of Israel, "our best friends in the world", were telling him the scenes of hunger were draining vital support and bringing Israel close to a "red line, to a point where we might lose control".
"It is for that reason, in order to achieve victory, we have to somehow solve the problem," he said, in a message apparently addressed to far-right hardliners in his government who have insisted aid be denied to Gaza.
Israeli air strikes across Gaza killed at least 40 Palestinians on Monday, according to local medics.
One of the strikes killed seven at a school housing displaced families in Nuseirat, central Gaza, and three in a house in nearby Deir Al Balah, local health authorities said.
Palestinian media said 50 trucks carrying flour, cooking oil and legumes would be allowed into the small coastal territory later in the day, while Israeli media said nine trucks with baby food were expected to enter in the coming hours.
"If I'm not mistaken, trucks will be entering, are planned to enter today already. Small amounts," Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani told reporters. He said it took time to create a situation where hundreds of trucks were able to enter daily and that such a decision was also a political one.
Israel has faced rising pressure over the blockade on humanitarian deliveries it imposed in March, shortly before breaking a two-month-old ceasefire, as aid agencies warn of famine in the enclave of 2.3 million people.
Nahed Shheibar, owner of a transport company involved in aid distribution, urged Gazans not to intercept or loot the trucks.
Residents and medics said an Israeli undercover force killed a leader in a raid in the south as the army proceeded with its new ground offensive. Ahmed Sarhan, a commander of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group allied with Hamas, was killed in the raid by forces that entered the heart of the city of Khan Younis disguised as displaced persons, according to the medics.
Residents said Sarhan fought the force before he was killed, and that the Israelis detained his wife and children before retreating in a bus towards the eastern border with Gaza under a cover of fire from planes.
Palestinian health officials said more than 500 people have been killed in attacks in the past eight days as Israel has stepped up its military campaign.
Sources on both sides report no progress in a new round of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri blamed Israel for the lack of progress at the talks and said escalating its offensive would be "a death sentence" for remaining captives.
Israel's ground and air war has devastated Gaza, displacing nearly all its residents and killing more than 53,000 people, many of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities. — Reuters
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