JERUSALEM/GAZA, Aug 14 (NNN-XINHUA) – Israel’s Zionist military chief, Eyal Zamir, yesterday approved the main framework of a government plan, to expand the offensive in Gaza to areas not yet under Israeli control.
The offensive will later target refugee camps in central Gaza and the southern area of Al Mawasi, where most of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents have taken shelter, according to a statement by the Barbaric Israeli military.
The principles of the plan were approved in a meeting of security officials earlier yesterday, the statement said, adding that, “the central concept for the plan for the next stages in the Gaza Strip was presented and approved, in accordance with the directive of the political echelon.”
Zamir’s approval came, three days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had been ordered to enter the “decisive stage” of the Gaza war, aimed at seizing the remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza City, refugee camps in central Gaza, and Al Mawasi’s southern area, an order widely condemned amid Gaza’s worsening humanitarian crisis.
It also came as arrogant Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, told a press briefing yesterday that, the Israeli regime rejects the two-state solution and “will not allow” the establishment of a Palestinian state.
On Sunday, a rare emergency weekend meeting held by the UN Security Council saw widespread outrage at the Israeli plan. Yet the session ended with no resolution as the United States, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, sided with Israel.
“If these (Israeli) plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction, compounding the unbearable suffering of the population,” UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, Miroslav Jenca, warned the Council.
On Monday, Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, slammed Israel over Gaza and accused Netanyahu of running a “network of massacres” and seeking to prolong his political survival at the cost of further bloodshed in the region.
On late Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty and his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, held a phone conversation, during which they reiterated rejection of the Israeli plan, calling it “an attempt to deepen the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, continue the genocide war against unarmed Palestinians, undermine their right to self-determination and establish their independent state.”
They also regarded the plan as “a blatant violation of international law and humanitarian international law,” read a statement released yesterday by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, Mahmoud Basal, the spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence, told Xinhua, at least 41 Palestinians were murdered, in the Barbaric Israeli attacks across Gaza, yesterday.
In southern Gaza, 12 people were murdered by the marauding Israeli army, while they were waiting to receive food near an aid centre south-west of Khan Younis. In central Gaza, five people were murdered and 10 others injured, as the trigger-happy Israeli army targeted civilian gatherings, near the aid distribution point at the Netzarim axis. Four were murdered while waiting for aid near Kissufim, east of Deir al-Balah, Basal said.
In Gaza City, at least 12 were murdered, during an Israeli airstrike at the home of the Abu Daf family, in the Zeitoun neighbourhood, east of the city, and eight others, including five children, were slain, when tents housing displaced people were targeted in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, south of the city, Basal said.
According to local eyewitnesses, the raiding Israeli army continued to demolish residential buildings in Rafah, Khan Younis, and eastern Gaza, in addition to artillery shelling in the eastern outskirts.
The developments came, as a delegation of Hamas leaders, headed by Khalil Al-Hayya, yesterday continued its meetings in Cairo with Egyptian officials, on ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News channel, citing an Egyptian official source, reported that, the delegation arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss resuming Gaza ceasefire talks, to reach a temporary 60-day truce agreement.
However, Netanyahu told Israeli broadcaster i24 on Tuesday that, Israel is “not going back to partial agreements,” accusing Hamas of “misleading” Israel, without providing details.
Gaza-based health authorities reported yesterday, eight more deaths from famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including three children, bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths to 235, including 106 children.
The total number of people killed by Israeli strikes since Oct, 2023, has risen to 61,722, with another 154,525 wounded, according to the health authorities.– NNN-XINHUA
