The Israeli army claims to have transformed 30% of the Gaza Strip into a "buffer zone," while the UN states that half a million Gazans have been displaced since March. 

The Israeli army announced that its forces had taken control of about 30 percent of the Gaza Strip, transforming it into an “operational security perimeter,” while the Gaza Civil Defense agency said that at least 37 people, most of them in camps for displaced civilians, were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday. The army also claimed in a statement that it had attacked about 1,200 “terrorist targets” from the air and carried out more than 100 other targeted operations since it violated the ceasefire agreement and resumed the war on the Gaza Strip on March 18. 

It added that the expanded buffer zone has allowed Israel to “achieve full operational control over several key areas and routes in the Gaza Strip.” Meanwhile, the United Nations reported that about 500,000 Palestinians have been displaced since the end of the ceasefire in Gaza, when Israel resumed military attacks on the devastated Palestinian territory. “Our humanitarian partners estimate that since March 18, approximately half a million people have been newly displaced or uprooted once again,” Stephanie Tremblay, a spokeswoman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said Wednesday. 

Smaller and more isolated 

Israel also said it would continue to prevent humanitarian aid from entering the enclave, despite growing warnings from human rights groups of near-famine conditions, with basic necessities rapidly running out. “Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated, adding that blocking aid was “one of the main pressure tools” used against Hamas. 

The military is also leaving the Gaza Strip “smaller and more isolated,” he continued. An Israeli activist group, Breaking the Silence, condemned the comments in a message on X, saying the so-called “buffer zone” was “large-scale ethnic cleansing.” Dwindling resources in Gaza, coupled with the aid blockade, have led to a rise in acute malnutrition among children, said OCHA, the UN humanitarian agency. 

The organization said last month that at least 3,696 Palestinian children had been diagnosed with acute malnutrition. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also issued a statement late Wednesday, saying it had instructed its negotiating team to continue efforts to secure the release of prisoners held in Gaza. 

It added that Netanyahu conducted a “situational assessment” by phone with the negotiating team and security officials, and asked them to continue “steps to advance the release of captives.” 

Dozens of Gazans killed in strikes

Gaza's civil defense agency said Thursday that 37 people were killed in Israeli strikes, most of them displaced people sheltering in tents in the devastated territory. Survivors described a loud explosion in the densely populated encampment that set several tents ablaze. "We were sitting peacefully in the tent, under the protection of God, when we suddenly saw something red glowing, then the tent exploded and the surrounding tents caught fire," Israa Abu al-Rus told AFP. "It was supposed to be a safe area in Al-Mawasi, and the place exploded." We fled the tent towards the sea and saw the tents burning.” After Israel declared Al-Mawasi a safe zone in December 2023, tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to its sand dunes along the Mediterranean coast to seek refuge from Israeli bombardment. But since then, the area has been hit by repeated Israeli strikes. Medical sources in Gaza also said Israel had killed at least 35 people early Wednesday. Israel intensified its attacks on the Gaza Strip early Thursday, with an Israeli gunboat stationed off the territory’s coast firing at western Gaza City, before further attacks hit other areas, including Rafah and Khan Younis.

Tributes also poured in for a Palestinian journalist named Fatima Hassouneh and 10 other members of her family who were killed by an Israeli airstrike targeting their home in Gaza City on Wednesday. The Gaza government's media office said more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, not including the thousands trapped under the rubble who are presumed dead.

The New Arab