JERUSALEM: Israeli airstrikes hit about 40 targets across the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military said on Friday, hours after Hamas rejected an Israeli ceasefire offer that it said fell short of its demand to agree a full end to the conflict.

Last month the Israeli military broke off a two-month truce that had largely halted fighting in Gaza and has since pushed in from the north and south, seizing almost a third of the enclave as it seeks to pressure Hamas into agreeing to release prisoners and disarm.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he would make a special statement on Saturday evening but gave no detail on what it would be about.

Palestinian health authorities said that at least 43 people were killed in strikes on Friday, adding to more than 1,600 deaths since Israel resumed airstrikes in March. The military said troops were operating in the Shabura and Tel Al-Sultan areas near the southern city of Rafah, as well as in northern Gaza, where it has taken control of large areas east of Gaza City.

Hamas rejects Israeli demands

Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 prisoners for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the conflict and reconstruction of Gaza. But he dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions”.

Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza.

43 Palestinians killed in the attacks

On Friday, Defence Minister Israel Katz repeated that Israel intended to achieve its war aims. “The IDF is currently working towards a decisive victory in all arenas, the release of the hostages, and the defeat of Hamas in Gaza,” he said in a statement.

The ceasefire offer it made through Egyptian mediators includes talks on a final settlement to the conflict but no firm agreement. Katz also said this week that troops would remain in the buffer zone around the border that now extends deep into Gaza and cuts the enclave in two, even after any settlement.

Gaza Strip shrinking

Observers and analysts see an attempt by Israel to seize large swathes of the Gaza Strip in order to redraw the map of the Palestinian territory, one of the most densely populated places on earth, making it increasingly “unlivable”.

On Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military has transformed vast areas representing 30 per cent of Gaza into buffer zones and displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Agnes Levallois, a lecturer at the Foundation for Strategic Research, said that leaving the buffer zones cleared and empty could be an end in itself.

“Israel’s strategy in the Gaza Strip is to make the territory unlivable,” she said, with some analysts saying that Israel now controls even more than 30pc of the territory.

A calculation based on maps issued by the military found that the total area under Israeli control was more than 185 square kilometres (about 70 square miles), or around 50pc of the territory.

On the ground, the Israeli army has created a wide security zone that follows Gaza’s perimeter along its borders with both Israel and Egypt.

Troops have also established three militarised corridors — Philadelphi, Morag, and Netzarim — cutting across Gaza’s width and dividing it into sections.

Field of ruins

With 2.4 million people packed into 365 square kilometres, Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated places.

“The Israeli army is increasingly resorting to so-called ‘evacuation orders’ which are, in fact, orders of forced displacement,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.

“This has led to the forced transfer of Palestinians in Gaza into increasingly confined areas, where they have little or no access to vital services.”

The remaining space is covered in ruins, with 80 per cent of civilian infrastructure totally or partly destroyed, according to the UN.

Nearly all Gazans have been displaced at least once, and many now live in schools turned shelters, under tents and in other makeshift shelters.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2025