Israel tightens grip on rat-infested Gaza

The Israeli army has pushed further into Gaza, according its radio service, increasing the area of the strip controlled by Israel.

The ceasefire agreement struck in October divided Gaza in two, with Israel controlling 53 per cent and Hamas 47 per cent. It created a temporary “Yellow Line”, which separated Hamas and Israel-controlled territory.

According to Israeli Army Radio, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have taken another 6 per cent of Gaza, bringing the total under their control to 59 per cent.

Israel initially withdrew from Gaza’s main urban areas to the Yellow Line as part of Donald Trump’s peace deal. The deal envisaged a full withdrawal once Hamas agreed to disarm and hand over power.

The Israeli Army Radio report said Hamas had continued to manufacture rockets and anti-tank missiles during the ceasefire while refusing to hand over weapons or control to Palestinian technocrats, directly violating the ceasefire agreement.

Senior officials in the IDF’s general staff were reportedly advocating for the war to resume as they considered it an opportune time to defeat the terror group.

The IDF’s expansion of control in Gaza is one of two strategic changes in recent weeks, according to the report. It has also increased air strikes targetting members of terror groups, killing nearly 100 people.

Hamas commented on the IDF push on Friday, calling it “clear evidence” of the Israeli government’s “disregard of the mediators’ efforts” and its attempt to cause the ceasefire to collapse.

Meanwhile, conditions in Gaza are dire, with the UN claiming that one in five households survive on just one meal a day.

“Many families are forced to borrow money or resort to desperate measures to get enough food,” the UN said this week.

Rats and parasites are spreading through Gaza’s tent camps for displaced Palestinians, biting children’s fingers and toes as they sleep and spreading disease.

Cogat, the Israeli military agency that controls access to Gaza, said that it had facilitated the transfer of about 90 ‌tons of pest control materials and more than ⁠1,000 mousetraps into the enclave. 

It said this was part of an effort in recent weeks with “all actors and international partners” to address the sanitation problem,

Despite the increase in aid since the ceasefire, suffering has continued in Gaza, where sewage and sanitation systems have been mostly destroyed by Israel. Humanitarian aid is subject to restrictions which Israel says it imposes because of security concerns..

Israel has continued deadly attacks in Gaza because of threats from Hamas. It has killed more than 800 Palestinians since October, according to Hamas figures, with four Israeli soldiers killed during the same period.

With waste collection ⁠largely halted, contaminated water ⁠and refuse have accumulated near the tent cities where families sleep, cook, and wash. This has given rodents and parasites a unique environment within which they can spread, aid groups say.

Cogat said more than 1.5 million tons of food had entered Gaza since the ceasefire was implemented, with some 600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entering the enclave every day.

On Saturday, the agency said Israel was “moving forward with a major expansion of the Red Cross field hospital in Gaza to significantly bolster medical infrastructure”.

The conditions in Gaza are made worse by Hamas’s continuing control. In January, The Telegraph reported that the terror group was imposing taxes on market traders as part of a wave of new levies and outright extortion to replenish its coffers.

Double taxes on imported goods and a substantial cut of the money-changing and tobacco trades are just some of the measures reported by ordinary Gazans.

Starting next week, dozens of trucks will begin delivering advanced medical systems, medicines, and new generators to the site.

The US president’s Board of Peace, which is composed of dozens of Arab, Asian and Western countries, said earlier this week that it had “significantly scaled up support for the people of Gaza” since October last year.

“Food aid is reaching three times more people than before. Hamas’s theft of aid has dwindled from 90 per cent to less than 1 per cent. According to the UN, nutrition has improved dramatically,” it said in a statement.

On Sunday, two foreign activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla who were brought to Israel for interrogation appeared before an Israeli court.

The flotilla of more than 50 vessels had set sail from France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking the Israeli blockade of Gaza and bringing supplies to the devastated Palestinian territory.

It was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off Greece early on Thursday, with Israel saying it had removed some 175 activists – two of whom were taken to Israel for questioning.

Saif Abu Keshek, from Spain, and Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian, appeared before a court in Ashkelon.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]