GAZA: The Zionist entity’s security cabinet approved the expansion of military operations in Gaza including the “conquest” of the Palestinian territory, an official said Monday, after the army called up tens of thousands of reservists for the offensive. It comes as the United Nations and aid organizations have repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming after more than two months of a total Zionist blockade.

The Zionist official said the expanded operations “will include, among other things, the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories, moving the Gaza population south for their protection”. A different senior security official said “a central component of the plan is a large-scale evacuation of the entire Gazan population from the fighting zones... to areas in southern Gaza”.

The plan, approved by the cabinet overnight, includes the holding of territories in the besieged Gaza Strip, the official said, and comes amid a push by the Zionist entity for Gaza’s people to leave the territory. A “voluntary transfer program for Gaza residents... will be part of the operation’s goals,” the senior security official added. The European Union voiced concern and urged restraint from the Zionist entity, saying the plan “will result in further casualties and suffering for the Palestinian people”.

“We are finally going to conquer Gaza. We are no longer afraid of the word ‘occupation’,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a pro-settler conference in an online discussion. The Zionist entity resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war with Hamas. The senior security source said the troop deployment would “allow a window of opportunity” for a possible hostage deal coinciding with US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to the Middle East in mid-May.

The Zionist entity has since carried out intensive aerial bombardments and expanded ground operations across the Palestinian territory, with Gaza rescuers on Monday saying Zionist air strikes killed at least 19 people in the north. “Our teams found 15 martyrs and 10 wounded, mostly children and women, after a (Zionist) strike on three apartments” northwest of Gaza City, said the agency’s spokesman, Mahmud Bassal. Four other people were killed and four wounded in a strike on a house in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, he told AFP.

The Zionist military offensive has killed at least 52,567 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the territory. The Zionist official said the plan for expanded operations “will include, among other things, the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories, moving the Gaza population south for their protection”.

The majority of Gaza’s population had resided in the north of the territory, particularly Gaza City, and nearly all have been displaced at least once since the war began.

The cabinet, which includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers, “unanimously approved” the plan aimed at defeating Gaza’s rulers Hamas and securing the return of captives held in the territory. The official source said the plan included “powerful strikes against Hamas”, without specifying their nature.

On Sunday, army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said the military was calling up “tens of thousands” of reservists to expand its offensive. Zionist media reported that the plan would not be implemented before Trump’s visit to the region next week. The Zionist entity claims its renewed offensive is aimed at forcing Hamas to free its remaining captives, although critics charge that it puts them in mortal danger. A Zionist campaign group representing captives’ relatives said the plan for an expanded Gaza offensive was “sacrificing” captives held in the territory.

Alongside the cabinet-approved plan for the expansion of the war, Netanyahu “continues to promote” a proposal by Trump for the voluntary departure of Gazans to neighboring countries such as Jordan or Egypt, the official said. Cairo and Amman, along with other Arab allies, governments around the world and the Palestinians themselves, have flatly rejected the proposal, but the notion has been seized on by Zionist ministers. Zionist Defense Minister Israel Katz said in February that a special agency would be established for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans.

The Zionist security cabinet also approved overnight the “possibility of humanitarian distribution, if necessary” in Gaza, “to prevent Hamas from taking control of the supplies and to destroy its governance capabilities”. The Axios news website on Friday reported that representatives from the United States, Zionist entity and a new international humanitarian foundation were discussing a mechanism for resuming aid delivery to Gaza “without it being controlled by Hamas”.

Hamas said Monday a new Zionist framework for aid delivery amounted to “pressure and political blackmail” and blamed the Zionist entity for the territory’s “humanitarian catastrophe”. “No deal except a comprehensive one, which includes a complete ceasefire, full withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, and the release of all prisoners from both sides,” Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said.

A grouping of UN entities and NGOs in the Palestinian territory accused the Zionist entity of seeking to “shut down the existing aid distribution system... and have us agree to deliver supplies through (Zionist) hubs under conditions set by the (Zionist) military”. The plan “contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic — as part of a military strategy”, the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a statement.

“The UN Secretary-General and the Emergency Relief Coordinator have made clear that we will not participate in any scheme”, it added. The Zionist cabinet alleged there was “currently enough food” in Gaza, although humanitarian organizations and UN agencies have warned of the blockade’s dire consequences for Gaza’s 2.4 million people. Crowds of desperate Gazans were seen piling up at a charity kitchen in the territory at the weekend. – Agencies