The Israeli government has put forward a new plan for a 30- to 60-day truce and the release of all remaining hostages, as tensions escalate in the Gaza Strip. This proposal was said to have originated with US Envoy Steve Witkoff. Massive escalations in military violence are exploding. Meanwhile, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has threatened to annex northern and southern Gaza should Hamas not release 59 Israeli hostages. In response, the Israeli government has upped its apocalyptic rhetoric, demanding that Palestinians in Gaza remove Hamas from power or else suffer catastrophic punishment.
To make this violence worse, Israel’s Defence Minister has ordered the military to "seize more territory in Gaza." On Tuesday, it was the IDF that went on the offensive. This move broke the shaky truce that had maintained relative calm since mid-January. According to the IDF, recent strikes targeted "terrorist" sites, including a "Hamas military site in northern Gaza where preparations were being made to fire projectiles."
Despite the intensified military actions, the IDF has denied any involvement in the explosion at a UN guesthouse in Deir al-Balah, which killed a UN staffer and seriously injured four others. Preliminary investigations indicate that a Ukrainian tank shell hit the base and caused it to explode, according to the Ukrainian aid officials in touch with The Guardian.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has devolved to an unimaginable extreme. Earlier this week, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees provided a shocking and disheartening report. They currently only have enough flour to distribute for the next six days. Gaza’s civil defense agency said the bombardment has killed 504 people. This unfortunate figure represents one of the deadliest tolls in more than 17 months since the war started.
The latest Israeli escalation in Gaza has led to nearly 124,000 more people being forced to leave their homes since Tuesday, UN officials estimate. In sheer human terms, this displacement touches nearly one in twenty of the country’s population. It was already Israel’s policy to withhold food, fuel, and humanitarian aid into Gaza. This was even before the IDF began its renewed offensive.
As for Hamas, it clearly still is very much interested in the nuts and bolts of Witkoff’s proposal. They are considering ideas from other intermediaries, such as Egypt.
“This time it is very, very bad. It is very intensive and very scary. We don’t know when we could be hit. We worry always about our loved ones. Everything is very uncertain and then there are these threats that Israel will expand its operations. This is a suffocation, a psychological condition that is very hard,” said Amjad Shawaa, head of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
The Trump administration has doubled down at this time of increasing tension, providing its own unconditional support for Israel. Entering the negotiations, we know President Biden’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt has made clear that…
“The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages there would be all hell to pay,” stated Leavitt.
We know the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic right now. …heavy artillery and airstrikes are further complicating life on the ground.
“It’s all day and all night. Drones, planes, artillery, tanks … all the time. It’s as bad as it’s ever been,” remarked an aid worker currently based in Gaza City.
As has been reported in +972 Magazine+, Israel’s Defence Minister has recently doubled down on plans to seize more land if hostages are not released by Hamas.
“I ordered [the army] to seize more territory in Gaza,” confirmed Katz.
“The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel,” he added.