Israel has released a plan to seize large areas of the Gaza Strip, according to Defense Minister Israel Katz. Efforts to take the sections by force from Palestine have left more than 50,000 Palestinians dead, according to reports from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Officials at hospitals inside the Palestinian territory said Israeli strikes overnight and into Wednesday had killed more than 30 people, nearly a dozen of them children. The Hostage Families Forum, which represents most captives’ families, said that it was “horrified to wake up this morning to the defense minister’s announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza.” The group said the Israeli government “has an obligation to free all 59 hostages from Hamas captivity — to pursue every possible channel to advance a deal for their release.”

According to a report by The Guardian, Israel says it is expanding its offensive in the Palestinian territory “to crush and clean the area” of militants and to seize “large areas that will be added to the security zones of the State of Israel”.

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Officials at the Nasser Hospital said the bodies of 12 people killed in an overnight airstrike that were brought to the hospital included five women, one of them pregnant, and two children. Officials at the Gaza European Hospital said they received five bodies of people killed in two separate airstrikes. –The Guardian

The Israeli government has long maintained a buffer zone just inside Gaza along its security fence and has greatly expanded it since the war began in 2023. Israel says the buffer zone is needed for its security, while Palestinians view it as a land grab.

While Israel has been planning a continual escalation of the war, the United States has threatened to simply use its military to take over Gaza.

Israel’s Planned Escalation Of The Gaza War

After Saying It Will Conquer Gaza, The U.S. Will NOT Finance Its Reconstruction

This war appears far from over. What do you think? Will it be ongoing? Will the U.S. succeed at taking Gaza to “end” the war? Let us know in the comments!