Offensive aims at security control of all of Gaza, says Netanyahu

Israel is seeking permanent military control of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

After the end of the current large-scale offensive in the Palestinian coastal area, “all of the territories of the Gaza Strip will be under Israel’s security control,” Netanyahu asserted.

The Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement would be “completely destroyed,” the Israeli prime minister told reporters in Jerusalem.

Israel’s army recently launched a major offensive in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, where around 2 million Palestinians live. Ground troops are also involved.

Dozens of deaths have been reported in recent days as a result of the fighting. More than 60 people have been killed since Tuesday night alone, according to the Hamas-controlled civil defence service. The figures could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military called on residents of several neighbourhoods in the north of the Gaza Strip to leave their homes.

An attack is imminent on these areas, from which Hamas is firing rockets at Israel, according to a statement by the army, which was distributed via text messages and online platforms.

Such evacuation calls are frequent and accompany an Israeli offensive.

A few hours earlier, the military reported that militants from the Gaza Strip had fired a projectile at southern Israel. The projectile was intercepted in mid-air, it said. Three more projectiles fell in the Gaza Strip before reaching Israeli territory, the Israeli military said later.