Palestinians to be pushed into three small zones. Military says no change to ‘collateral damage’ policy in airstrikes
Times of Israel
Israel said Sunday that it aims to ‘capture’ 75 percent of the Gaza Strip’s territory within two months as part of its new offensive against the Hamas terror group.
Israel on March 18 resumed its attacks against Hamas with a surprise wave of airstrikes, ending a two-month ceasefire. The IDF has since deployed five divisions to the Strip — amounting to tens of thousands of troops — and is poised to launch a wide-scale ground offensive aimed at defeating Hamas’s military wing and its civil rule in Gaza.
When the major ground offensive is launched, the Palestinian population will be pushed into three small zones in Gaza: a new ‘safer zone’ in the Mawasi area on the southern Strip’s coast, where Israel previously declared a ‘humanitarian zone’; a strip of land in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat, where the IDF has not operated with ground forces; and the center of Gaza City, to which many Palestinians returned during the ceasefire earlier this year.
According to the IDF’s current estimates, some 700,000 Palestinians are residing in the Mawasi area, 300,000-350,000 are in central Gaza, and around one million are in Gaza City.
This means that Gaza’s 2 million population will be pushed into an area amounting to just 25% of the Strip when the IDF launches its expanded ground operation.
The IDF will then capture the rest of Gaza, raze most buildings, and hold it for the foreseeable future. This captured territory will include all of Rafah, Khan Younis, and the towns north of Gaza City.
According to the IDF’s plans, which were seen by The Times of Israel, it should take just two months to capture 75% of Gaza from the moment the operation goes ahead. Currently, the military holds about 40% of the Strip’s territory.
Military officials have said that the IDF is shifting its focus away from trying to eliminate as many terror operatives as possible — which had been the focus from the beginning of the war — and instead is centering on capturing territory.
No change in policy involving ‘collateral damage’ to civilians
The military said Sunday that since the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip, it had struck over 2,900 targets resulting in over 3,785 Palestinians having been killed in that time.
The IDF said there have been no recent changes to its airstrike policy, including what sort of collateral damage. i.e. how many civilian casualties are permissible during operations in Gaza.
According to the IDF, there has also been no change to the amount of collateral damage in strikes in practice, and the combatant-to-civilian deaths ratio has remained relatively the same throughout the war, with three civilians killed for every dead Hamas operative.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far.