JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel is studying a plan to use siege tactics against Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, quoted by several Israeli media.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The media refer to information provided by anonymous sources at a closed meeting of a parliamentary committee.
The plan, released by retired army chiefs and proposed by members of Parliament this month, proposes ordering Palestinian civilians to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, which would then known as a closed military zone.
The approximately 5,000 Hamas terrorists who remained there would be besieged until they surrendered. Army Radio reported that Benjamin Netanyahu told members of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the project was under investigation.
According to public broadcaster Kan, Benjamin Netanyahu clarified that the plan made “sense” and that it was one project among others.
Israel has been the subject of strong criticism from the international community because of the humanitarian crisis caused by its almost year-long offensive against the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Most of the population of Gaza has disappeared. About a million people, or half the population, are currently crowded into a humanitarian zone that represents less than 15% of the land and lacks essential infrastructure and services , according to the United Nations.
Humanitarian access to northern Gaza, where the population is between 300,000 and 500,000, according to the United Nations, is particularly difficult.
The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 250 people hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli accounts.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive since then. Gaza health officials say the majority are civilians.
Israel, which lost 346 soldiers in Gaza, says at least a third of the Palestinians killed are fighters.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell, by Nidal al-Mughrabi, French version by Benjamin Mallet)
2024-09-23 04:16:04
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