Israel has announced plans to relocate Palestinians from combat zones to southern Gaza as it prepares for a military offensive in densely populated areas of the territory. The Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian aid, COGAT, stated that the supply of tents to Gaza would resume on Sunday.
While the military offered no comment on the timeline for this mass movement, Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed on social media that “we are now in the stage of discussions to finalize the plan to defeat Hamas in Gaza.”
Amidst these developments, the families of Israeli hostages, expressing growing frustration over 22 months of war, have called for a “nationwide day of stoppage” across Israel on Sunday.
Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to still be alive. They and other Israelis were horrified by the recent release of videos showing emaciated hostages speaking under duress and pleading for help and food.
The families and supporters have pressed the government for a deal to stop the war — a call that some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs have made as well in recent weeks.
A group representing the families has urged Israelis into the streets on Sunday. “Across the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home,” it said in a statement.
“I want to believe that there is hope, and it will not come from above, it will come only from us,” said Dana Silberman Sitton, sister of Shiri Bibas and aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were killed in captivity.
She spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv, along with Pushpa Joshi, sister of kidnapped Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi, a student seized from a kibbutz.
“I miss my best friend,” Pushpa said.
An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed a baby girl and her parents on Saturday, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said. Motasem al-Batta, his wife and the girl were killed in their tent in the crowded Muwasi area.
“Two and a half months, what has she done?” neighbor Fathi Shubeir asked, sweating as temperatures in the shattered territory soared above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). “They are civilians in an area designated safe.”
Israel’s military said it couldn’t comment on the strike without more details. It said it is dismantling Hamas’ military capabilities and takes precautions not to harm civilians.
Muwasi is one of the heavily populated areas in Gaza where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel plans to widen the coming military offensive, along with Gaza City and “central camps” — an apparent reference to the built-up Nuseirat and Bureij camps in central Gaza.
Israel may be using the threat to pressure Hamas into releasing more hostages taken in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.
