Israel vows to take more land in Gaza to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's defense minister said Friday he has ordered ground forces to advance deeper into the Gaza Strip, and vowed to hold more land until Hamas releases the remaining hostages it holds.

“The more Hamas continues its refusal to release the kidnapped, the more territory it will lose to Israel,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

After retaking part of the strategic Netzarim corridor that divides Gaza’s north from south, Israeli troops moved Thursday toward the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the southern border city of Rafah. The military said it had resumed enforcing a blockade on northern Gaza, including Gaza City.

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet unanimously approved his request to fire the head of the country’s Shin Bet internal security service. The decision to sack Ronen Bar deepens a power struggle focused largely over who bears responsibility for the 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza.

It also could set the stage for a crisis over the country’s division of powers. Israel’s attorney general has ruled that the Cabinet has no legal basis to dismiss Bar.

Critics say the move is a power grab by the prime minister against an independent-minded civil servant, and tens of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated in support of Bar, including outside Netanyahu's residence on Friday.

A Shin Bet report into Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that prompted the war acknowledged failures by the security agency. But it also said that policies by Netanyahu’s government created the conditions for the attack.

Netanyahu is also upset that the Shin Bet has launched an investigation into connections between some of his close aides and the Gulf state of Qatar. His office said Bar’s dismissal would take effect on April 10 or before then if a replacement is found.

Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel on Tuesday shattered a truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January.

Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, has said it would escalate military operations until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive — and gives up control of the territory.

The ceasefire agreed to in mid-January was a three-phase plan meant to lead to a long-term cessation of hostilities, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the return of all hostages taken by Hamas in its surprise attack on Israel.

In the first phase of the ceasefire, Hamas returned 25 living hostages and the remains of eight others in exchange for the release of nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces also withdrew to buffer zones inside Gaza, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians returned to northern Gaza.

The ceasefire was supposed to continue as long as talks on the second phase continued but Netanyahu balked at entering substantive negotiations.

Instead, he tried to force Hamas to accept a new ceasefire plan put forth by U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.

That plan would have required Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners — a key component of the first phase.

Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as called for in the original ceasefire agreement mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

The militant group has said it is willing to hand over power to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority or a committee of political independents but will not lay down its arms until Israel ends its decades-long occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.

Hamas said in a statement Friday that the firing of Shin Bet's head shows a “deepening crisis of distrust” within Israel’s leadership, and claimed that Netanyahu “engineered sham negotiations to stall and buy time without any genuine intention of reaching tangible outcomes.”

Netanyahu said he had ordered the resumed strikes on Gaza because of Hamas' rejection of the new proposal.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration reiterated its support for Israel this week, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying, “The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages there would be all hell to pay.”

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants, but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war at its height displaced around 90% of Gaza’s population and has caused vast destruction across the territory.

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Rising reported from Bangkok.

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