Israel says it will maintain ‘permanent’ presence in Gaza unless hostages are freed

By Ibrahim Dahman, Eugenia Yosef, Tim Lister, Tala Alrajjal and Vasco Cotovio, CNN

(CNN) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned Hamas that Israel will maintain a permanent presence in parts of Gaza unless the hostages in Gaza are released as Israel escalates a new offensive in the territory.

The shaky ceasefire collapsed on Tuesday when Israel bombarded Gaza, shattering two months of calm that also saw dozens of hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

Katz said Friday that he’d instructed the Israeli military “to seize additional areas in Gaza, while evacuating the population, and to expand the security zones around Gaza in order to protect Israeli communities and IDF soldiers through permanent maintenance of the territory by Israel.”

“The more Hamas continues its refusal to release the kidnapped, the more territory it will lose to Israel,” he added. It was unclear whether Katz meant the indefinite occupation of parts of Gaza.

Katz’ comments came as Hamas said it was continuing contacts with mediators to try to re-establish the ceasefire that was in effect between January 19 and Tuesday.

Katz said Israel was adhering to the proposal of President Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for the release all the hostages, both living and dead, “in advance and in two stages with a ceasefire in between – without endangering Israeli security interests.”

In the meantime, Israel would intensify strikes from the air, sea and land, and “civilian means of pressure” would be adopted along with military pressure, “including evacuating the Gaza population to the south and implementing US President Trump’s voluntary transfer plan for Gaza residents.”

Hamas meanwhile says it is considering the latest US ceasefire plan for Gaza and remains “fully engaged” in the mediation process.

In a statement Friday, Hamas said it was continuing to deliberate on a proposal from Witkoff, who has suggested extending the first phase of the ceasefire-hostage deal through early April. It reiterated its demand for a permanent end to the war, saying it was exploring “various ideas on the table in a manner that aims to achieve a prisoner exchange deal that ensures the release of detainees, ends the war, and secures a withdrawal.”

The proposal from Witkoff last week would have secured the release of a handful of living hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the extension of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, CNN has reported. Of the 59 hostages still being held in Gaza, fewer than half are still believed to be alive.

Witkoff proposed the ceasefire extension would run until the end of Passover, extending the pause in fighting and renewing the entry of humanitarian aid through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday.

Hamas has insisted on sticking to a timeline previously agreed with Israel and the US that would move the warring parties into a second phase of the truce, in which Israel would commit to ending the war. But Israel has refused, saying it wants to extend the first phase instead.

Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas official, on Thursday accused Israel of using the Witkoff plan “to blackmail Hamas by retrieving the (hostages) from the first phase of the agreement without committing to the obligations of the second phase, which include a lasting calm and full withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli fire has killed more than 500 people and injured nearly a thousand in Gaza since the fighting resumed, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. Hamas fired rockets into Israel Thursday for the first time since the truce collapsed, but no casualties were reported.

At least nine senior Hamas members, including top government officials, are among those killed, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The dead include Essam al-Dalis, the Hamas head of government in Gaza; Mahmoud Abu-Watfa, the interior minister; and Ahmed Al-Hatta, the justice minister, according to the IDF.

After Friday’s rocket-fire, the IDF ordered the evacuation of neighborhoods in north-west Gaza, as “an early warning before a strike. Terrorist organizations are returning to and firing rockets from populated areas” the IDF posted on X in Arabic.

The United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, said the reported number of children killed on Wednesday marked “one of the largest single-day child death toll in the last year.”

The Israeli military said Thursday that it began a ground operation in southern Gaza’s Rafah city. The city’s municipality reported Friday that more than 100 civilians had been killed under bombardment – most of them children and women. It said residents were being forcibly driven into the open, with no shelter or food.

Egypt, one of the key mediators in the conflict, has given a gloomy assessment of the chance of renewed negotiations.

Asked by CNN whether Israel appears to be willing to return to the negotiating table, Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Tamim Khallaf said: “It doesn’t, and I think it’s an isolationist policy and runs diametrically opposed to what the global community would like to see… an end to this war.”

Egypt had no indication that Israel was going to breach the Gaza ceasefire when Israeli negotiators were in Cairo on Sunday, just two days before Israel renewed attacks, Khallaf told CNN’s Becky Anderson in an interview on Thursday.

“We have not been receiving these indications. We were engaged in ceasefire talks in order to move forward with phase two and phase three,” he said, calling Israel’s return to war a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement “that will trigger ripple effects.”

This story has been given a new headline and updated.

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