TRANSCRIPT
After close to 600 days of conflict, the people of Gaza are preparing for new horrors and the threat of displacement from their homeland.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced the launching of an escalated ground invasion of the territory after his security cabinet approved plans to seize and occupy the entirety of Gaza and displace the roughly 2.1 million Palestinians who live there.
“As we promised, we have launched a powerful campaign against Hamas, 'Gideon's Chariots', IDF forces are simply entering with force into the Gaza Strip with a dual goal: defeating Hamas and freeing our hostages. Two goals that are intertwined, and we will achieve both.”
At least 460 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes over the past week, according to local medics, as the military looked to pave the way for the oncoming ground assault.
Gaza's Civil Defence says at least 140 people were killed in the latest attacks with more than 20 Palestinians killed and over 100 wounded in a so-called safe zone in Gaza's south.
Amal Al-Shaer, who lost relatives in the strikes on the al-Mawasi tent camp, says her people have been abandoned by the world.
"Where are the Muslims? Where ar the Arab nations? They don't see what is happening to us? Everyday children are slaughtered, women die, what is their fault? What is the fault of these children, what is the fault of these women? Isn't this haram? Isn't this unjust? Does no one see us? Does no one care about us? Are we sheep being slaughtered?"
The Israeli military says, over the past day, troops have begun extensive ground operations throughout the north and south of Gaza.
Their forces have also laid siege to the Indonesian Hospital, forcing the last partially functioning hospital in the north to shut down.
In one act of relief, after launching the new phase of the war, Israel has also announced some easing of their total blockade of Gaza following ten weeks of starving the strip of food and medicine.
They say a limited amount of food will be allowed to enter to avoid famine.
Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at Gaza's health ministry, told A-F-P that 57 children have died as a result of starvation since the blockade began. [[a number that was unable to be verified.]]
After new strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp, local man Nasr Nasr says people were killed while hungry.
“May God have mercy on them and accept them as martyrs. They are innocent people, they have nothing to do with the resistance, they are innocent people. They died while they were hungry, because today all the people of Gaza are hungry. We don’t have food, we don’t have flour, we don’t have bread.”
Israel says its ramped-up ground offensive aims to free hostages and defeat Hamas, but as it got underway, Israel and the group were entering indirect talks in Qatar aimed at creating a deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a statement that such a deal "would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip".
But this remains unlikely as a Hamas spokesperson has reiterated that disarmament and the continued occupation of Gaza by Israel are red lines.
The group says they are seeking a permanent ceasefire rather than a temporary truce offered by Israel.
But on the verge of a new and potentially more deadly phase to the war in Gaza, how are the Israeli public feeling?
A March poll from Israel's Channel 12 showed 69 per cent of Israelis wanted an immediate end to the war in exchange for the release of the estimated 59 remaining hostages and a growing protest movement has escalated this pressure.
The Netanyahu government has long refused any suggestion of ending the war in exchange for the hostages, saying they will push on until Hamas is entirely eliminated.
The prime minister's far-right allies Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have threatened to pull out of the governing coalition if Israel ends the war, jeopardising Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership position.
At a protest in Tel Aviv, Shai Moses, nephew of released hostage Gadi Moses, says his prime minister's choice to continue the war is dooming those held in Hamas captivity to death.
"Instead of a deal to end the war and bring everyone back — as Trump is promoting — Netanyahu is leading us into an endless war and settlements in Gaza, as pushed by Ben Gvir and Smotrich. Rather than acting in Israel’s interest and according to the will of the majority, Netanyahu is serving a radical messianic minority. For Netanyahu, his seat comes above all — even above the hostages who were abandoned on his watch. Expanding the war and escalating military pressure now will inevitably lead to the deaths of hostages."
