Israel “tightens the seat” of Gaza City while Hamas reviews the Trump peace plan

The Israeli Minister of Defense said that his forces “tighten the seat” around Gaza City by extending its control from a military corridor through the territory to the coast.

Isael Katz also issued a last warning to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the city to evacuate south, saying that those who had remained during the offensive against Hamas would be “terrorists and supporters of terror”.

Hospitals reported that 45 people were killed by Israeli fires in Gaza City on Wednesday, while the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) said it was forced to suspend operations there.

Israel intensifies the assault while Hamas weighs its response to the new plan of US President Donald Trump to end the war.

Arab and Turkish mediators are supposed to put pressure on a positive response, but a senior figure in Hamas said the group was likely to reject it.

The FDIs described Gaza City as Hamas’ last bastion “and said that the offensive aims to guarantee the release of the 48 hostages still held by Hamas – 20 of which are considered alive – and ensure the” decisive defeat “of the Palestinian Armed Group.

The Israeli Defense Minister told Israeli media that the FDI “was currently completing the capture of the Netzarim corridor on the west coast of Gaza” – a reference to the Israeli military area which extends to the east of the perimeter with Israel.

“This will tighten the seat around Gaza City, and anyone who will leave the south will be forced to go through TDS control points,” said the Haaretz newspaper.

He warned that it was the “last chance for residents of Gaza (City) who wish to move south and leave terrorists of the isolated Hamas in the city of Gaza itself in the face of the activity of the FDI which continues at full power”.

“Those who stay in Gaza will be terrorists and supporters of terrorism,” he warned.

The ICRC said that “under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected, whether they remain or leave Gaza City”.

He also said that Israel, as an occupying power, had the obligation to ensure that their basic needs were met, including protecting medical staff and allowing the rapid and unhindered passage of humanitarian aid throughout the strip.

The ICRC said that the intensification of military operations had forced him to suspend the operations of his office in Gaza City while tens of thousands of people were confronted with what she described as “heartbreaking” conditions.

“The ICRC will continue to endeavor to provide support to civilians from Gaza City, each time the circumstances allow, from our offices to Deir al-Balah and Rafah (in the center and southern Gaza), which remain fully operational,” he added.

Doctors said 29 of the people killed in Gaza City on Wednesday were brought to Al-Ahli hospital in the southern district of Zeitoun.

A video filmed during the night seemed to show four seriously injured men with high-visibility jackets receiving treatment inside a tent there.

The Civil Defense Agency led by Hamas allegedly alleged that a team of its paramedical paramedics and firefighters was “directly targeted” by an Israeli strike while they responded to a neighboring Al-Falah school strike, which was used as shelter for displaced families.

He said the rescuers had carried out humanitarian work, carrying uniforms and driving marked vehicles, and that the attack constituted a blatant violation of international law.

The agency initially declared that seven rescuers had been injured and that two were in critical condition. Later, he announced that one of them, Munther al-Dahshan, had died.

The Palestinian media reported that six people had been killed during the initial school strike. A member of the Civil Defense said on social networks that the victims understood children and had published a video of a seriously injured boy lying on a hospital bed frame.

When he was asked to comment on, the Israeli Defense Forces (FDI) said in a statement that she “had struck a Hamas terrorist” and that “measures were taken in order to mitigate civilians’ damage”.

The Israeli media cited the FDI, according to the TSAhals, that around 800,000 inhabitants had fled Gaza City since the offensive plans were announced in August and between 250,000 and 350,000 people.

However, the UN and its humanitarian partners said that they had only watched 397,000 people crossing the south of Gaza on Saturday.

Many families have said that they are unable to move due to high costs while others are not willing to leave after being moved several times during the war.

Some who followed the military orders to evacuate have said that they found no space to present their tents and therefore returned to the north.

TSAhal Arabic spokesperson announced on Wednesday that southern people could no longer use the Al-Rashid coastal road to move north to Gaza City. The road would remain open for those fleeing south, he said.

The government’s media office managed by Hamas in Gaza condemned the decision which, according to her, was “part of the policy during suffocation, siege and genocide perpetrated by the occupation (Israel) against our Palestinian people in the strip”.

The Israeli government approved the plans for the offensive of Gaza City after the rupture of indirect talks with Hamas on a previous American proposal for an agreement that would have seen about half of the hostages released during a 60-day ceasefire.

Arab and Turkish mediators met Hamas leaders in Qatar on Monday to accept the new 20 -point peace plan unveiled by President Trump on Monday.

However, a higher figure of Hamas told the BBC that it had served “the interests of Israel” and that the group was likely to reject it.

The plan includes an immediate end to war, the release of all hostages within 72 hours in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, as well as the disarmament of Hamas and a progressive withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Trump warned Hamas on Tuesday that he had “three or four days” to accept the terms or to face serious consequences.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pearable to a government meeting that he had accepted the plan because he had achieved all the objectives of the War of Israel.

However, the far-right minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir would have qualified the plan as “dangerous” and “full of holes”.