Israeli army to remain in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria ‘indefinitely,’ says defence minister

Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz said on Wednesday that the Israeli army has now occupied more than half of the besieged Gaza Strip and will remain in those areas “indefinitely” as well as areas it has occupied in Lebanon and Syria.

“Unlike in the past, the [Israeli military] is not evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized,” said Katz. He added that Israel’s policy in Gaza, led by the military leadership with the support of the political echelon, is “clear and decisive”.

This policy, he said, focuses on releasing Israeli captives held in Gaza within the framework of US envoy Steve Witkoff’s plan and defeating Hamas by stopping the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave, under the pretext of preventing the Palestinian movement from getting more control over the population. An aid distribution infrastructure will be established through civilian companies, apparently.

As a means of ensuring the safety of Israeli occupation soldiers in Gaza, the army will evacuate the “Palestinians from combat zones and soften the ground with massive force from the air, land and sea, using heavy equipment to deal with explosive devices and demolish threatening structures,” said Katz. He added that after clearing those areas, they will be “incorporated” into Israeli security zones to protect the illegal settlements where the Israeli army will remain “indefinitely”.

He noted that to date, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents have been evacuated and others have been incorporated into the security zones.

Katz added that in parallel, progress is being made on the plan for the “voluntary transfer” of Gaza residents, and significant pressure is being put on Hamas to implement the deal while tensions with the local population are increasing. He also claimed that Egypt, for the first time, had set the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarisation of Gaza as a condition for a comprehensive deal and an end to the war.

“If Hamas continues its intransigence,” he warned, “the operations will expand and move to the next stages.”

What the far-right minister calls “intransigence” is the insistence of the Islamic Resistance Movement on Israel abiding by the three-phase ceasefire agreement which came into effect on 19 January. The occupation state refused to move to the second phase as agreed, because it was required to withdraw its troops from Gaza and end the war. It chose instead to resume its genocide.

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