Residents Forced To Evacuate, Israeli Troops Stay In Gaza Supporting Zone

JAKARTA - Israeli troops will remain in the buffer zone they have created in Gaza even after a settlement to end the war.

Israel's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, confirmed this because efforts to revive the ceasefire agreement failed.

Since continuing their operations last month, Israeli forces have formed an extensive "security zone" that extends to Gaza and urged more than 2 million Palestinians to an increasingly narrow area in the south and along the coastline.

"Unlike in the past, the IDF did not vacate the areas that had been cleared and captured," Katz said in a statement after a meeting with military commanders.

"IDF will remain in the security zone as a buffer between the enemy and society in any temporary or permanent situation in Gaza - such as in Lebanon and Syria," he continued.

In southern Gaza, Israeli forces have seized about 20% of the region, capturing the border town of Rafah and advancing into the interior to the so-called "Ridor Morag" that stretches from the eastern bank of Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea between Rafah and Khan Younis.

The wide path has stretched in the central part of the Netzarim region and has expanded the buffer zone around the border to hundreds of meters into the interior, including the Shejaia region to the east of Gaza City in the north.

Israel says its forces killed hundreds of Hamas fighters, including many senior commanders of the Palestinian militant group, but the operation has left the United Nations and European countries worried.

More than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced since hostilities restarted on March 18 after two months of relative calm, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and airstrikes and Israeli bombings have killed at least 1,630 people.

The MSF medical charity said Gaza was a "mass grave" with humanitarian groups struggling to provide assistance.

"We witnessed firsthand the destruction and forced transfer of all residents in Gaza," Amande Bazerole, MSF's emergency coordinator in Gaza.

Katz said Israel, which blocked the delivery of aid supplies to the region, was building infrastructure to allow distribution through civilian companies in the future. However, he said aid blockade would remain in effect.

Katz said Israel would continue its plans to allow Gazans wishing to leave the area to do so, although it remains unclear which countries are willing to accept large numbers of Palestinians.