Israel defense minister threatens to annex parts of Gaza; supreme court freezes Netanyahu bid to sack intel chief

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened Friday to annex parts of the Gaza Strip unless Hamas militants release the remaining Israeli hostages held in the war-battered Palestinian territory.

The warning came as Israel stepped up the renewed assault it launched on Tuesday, shattering the relative calm that had reigned in the war-battered territory since a Jan. 19 ceasefire.

Also Friday, Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said that the prime minister was not allowed to appoint a new internal security agency chief, after the supreme court froze his government’s bid to oust the Shin Bet head.

“According to the decision of the Supreme Court, it is prohibited to take any action that harms the position of the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar,” Baharav-Miara said in a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published by a spokesperson.

“It is prohibited to appoint a new head of Shin Bet, and interviews for the position should not be held,” she added.

But in a post on X, Netanyahu insisted it was up to the government to decide who heads the domestic security agency.

“There will be no civil war! The State of Israel is a state of law, and according to the law, the government of Israel decides who will be the head of the Shin Bet,” he said.

The supreme court had frozen the government’s decision to dismiss Bar, in order to review appeals filed against the dismissal.

It said that the freeze would remain in place until the appeals are presented to the court before April 8.

Opposition parties and a non-governmental organization filed separate appeals hours after the government announced its decision.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid’s center-right Yesh Atid party said it had appealed against Bar’s dismissal in the name of several opposition movements.

Yesh Atid denounced what it called “a decision based on flagrant conflict of interest.”

In her message to Netanyahu, Baharav-Miara said a legal review would be completed into the possibility of the prime minister’s involvement in the matter “given the concern of a conflict of interest arising from the Shin Bet’s investigations of his trusted associates.”

In a letter made public on Thursday, Bar said Netanyahu’s arguments against him were “general, unsubstantiated accusations that seem to hide the motivations behind the decision to terminate duties”.

He referred to the “complex, wide-ranging and highly sensitive investigation” involving people close to Netanyahu who allegedly received money from the Gulf state of Qatar, which was a major aid donor to Gaza before Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.

Strikes

Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed 11 people on Friday — three in pre-dawn strikes and eight more during the daytime.

On Thursday, it had reported a death toll of 504 since the bombardment resumed, one of the highest since the war began more than 17 months ago with Hamas’s attack on Israel.

“I ordered (the army) to seize more territory in Gaza … The more Hamas refuses to free the hostages, the more territory it will lose, which will be annexed by Israel,” Katz said in a statement.

Should Hamas not comply, Katz also threatened “to expand buffer zones around Gaza to protect Israeli civilian population areas and soldiers by implementing a permanent Israeli occupation of the area.”

The military urged residents of the Al-Salatin, Al-Karama and Al-Awda areas of southern Gaza to evacuate their homes on Friday ahead of a threatened strike.

“For your safety, head south toward the known shelters immediately,” Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

AFP images from northern Gaza showed donkey carts piled high with belongings as residents fled their homes along rubble-strewn roads.

‘Pressure points’

Israel resumed intensive bombing of Gaza on Tuesday, citing deadlock in indirect negotiations on next steps in the truce after its first stage expired early this month.

Its resumption of large-scale military operations was coordinated with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration but drew widespread condemnation.

Turkey condemned what it said was a “deliberate” attack by Israel on a Turkish-built hospital in Gaza. “We strongly condemn the destruction by Israel of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital,” its foreign ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “concern” over the fresh Israeli assault in a telephone call Friday with the ruler of Qatar, one of the mediators of the January ceasefire.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed concern about the government’s actions in a video statement on Thursday, saying it was “unthinkable to resume fighting while still pursuing the sacred mission of bringing our hostages home.”

Thousands of protesters have rallied in Jerusalem in recent days, accusing Netanyahu of resuming military operations without regard for the safety of the hostages.

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, 58 are still held by Gaza militants, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had closed off the territory’s main north-south route as it expanded the ground operations which resumed on Wednesday.

Projectiles from Gaza

Israel’s military said it intercepted two projectiles fired from northern Gaza on Friday, after air raid sirens sounded in the southern city of Ashkelon.

On Thursday, sirens went off in central Israel as Hamas said it fired rockets at Tel Aviv in its first military response to Israel’s resumed offensive. The military said it intercepted one rocket, while two hit an uninhabited area.

“We will intensify the fight with aerial, naval and ground shelling as well as by expanding the ground operation until hostages are freed and Hamas is defeated, using all military and civilian pressure points,” Katz said.

He said these included implementing Trump’s proposal for the United States to redevelop Gaza as a Mediterranean resort after the relocation of its Palestinian inhabitants to other Arab countries.

When asked if Trump was trying to get a Gaza ceasefire back on track Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the president “fully supports” Israel’s renewed Gaza operations.

Israel rejected negotiations for a promised second stage of the truce, calling instead for the return of all of its remaining hostages under an extended first stage.

That would have meant delaying talks on a lasting ceasefire, and was rejected by Hamas as an attempt to renegotiate the original deal.

—

By Agence France-Presse