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2024.05.19 21:34 GMT+8

IDF ramps up assault across Gaza, while Gantz threatens to quit

Updated 2024.05.19 21:34 GMT+8
CGTN

Israel carried out ground efforts across the Gaza strip through the night as warplanes continued bombarding the enclave as the conflict entered its 225th day. 

Around 800,000 displaced Palestinans have been made to flee refugee camps across Rafah in southern Gaza while IDF forces also marched on the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest in the north. 

Smoke rises following an Israeli strike in Jabalia refugee camp. /Rami Zohod/Reuters

Meanwhile, Gaza's health ministry reported that 31 people were killed in a strike in the city of Nuseirat in central Gaza. 

The escalation comes as Israel's government claims it is seeking to clear out the last strongholds held by Hamas fighters. 

IDF sources also reported that two Israeli soldiers were killed in combat during the push on southern Gaza. 

A nation divided

With the conflict continuing to escalate, tensions and divisions could be seen over the weekend across the Israeli public and government. 

Israeli War Cabinet minister Benny Gantz threatened to leave his role in the government and the nation's three-man ministry if incumbent prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn't adopt a new strategy on Gaza by June 8. 

Gantz called for the completion of strategic goals including removing Hamas's government and replacing it with a multinational civilian entity. 

 

Protestors being tackled as they erect a ballot box at the entrance to Jerusalem. /Ilan Rosenberg/Reuters

Speaking in a television address on Saturday, Gantz warned Netanyahu that the nation was watching and that the prime minister's alignment with hardliners could lead the nation into the "abyss".

His words came as protests and discontent with the course of the conflict continue to rise across Israel. Sunday morning saw three protesters arrested outside the entrance to Jerusalem. The arrests came as demonstrators erected large ballot boxes on the motorway blocking entrance into the city. 

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An enclave struggling with malnutrition

The divisions across Israel come as the United States finished the placement of its $320 million floating pier named 'Trident' as a means of safely delivering foreign aid into Gaza. 

The pier's installment is seen as a safer means of delivering aid after the May 13 incidents which saw armed Israeli mobs targeting and looting aid vehicles headed to Gaza

Officials have reported the first instances of aid reaching the pier.

A ship loaded with aid sails near a U.S.-built pier. /Ramadan Abed/Reuters

Days earlier World Food Programme Country Director for Palestine Matthew Hollingworth reported the dire need for better means of aid reaching the famine-threatened enclave. 

"We've not been able to access our warehouse in Rafah for more than a week. We have very little food and fuel coming through the border crossings in the south," he said, "We are always trying hard but failing currently to bring in consistent volumes of food."

An abandoned refugee camp in Rafah, Gaza. /CFP

Hollingworth added: "We know we need additional entry points. Every new entry point is a new artery, pumping lifeblood into Gaza, so we will work hard to continue to find new entry points and get more assistance in, at volume, consistently, to help stop famine in its tracks."

A total of 35,386 Palestinians have now reportedly been killed since the start of the conflict, with 70,000 also reported wounded. 

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Source(s): Reuters
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