Netanyahu in the north of the Gaza Strip – DiePresse.com

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Netanyahu traveled accompanied by the Israeli Minister of Defense, the military leader and high -ranking civil servant, as his office announced. « We insist that our hostages are released and we insist on reaching all of our war goals, and we do this thanks to our heroic fighters, » the premier was quoted at a meeting with soldiers.

In the explanation, it was said that Netanyahu had received a security instruction in the northern Gaza Strip on the military’s efforts to liberate the Israeli hostages and to victory over the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. Where exactly the visit took place was not announced. There was also no indication of the claim of Hamas prevailing in the Gaza Strip, according to which after an Israeli attack, they lost contact with the guards of the Israeli-American hostage of Edan Alexander.

Still 59 hostages caught

Netanyahu was last in the sealed coastal strip last July. At that time he also paid an unannounced visit to Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel’s troops are currently in the process of expanding a so -called « security zone » in the north of the coastal area. Defense Minister Israel Katz threatens to permanently take parts of the Gaza Strip. According to its own statements, the Israeli government also wants to increase the pressure on Hamas to released the hostages.

The militant Palestinian group still holds 59 hostages. Almost 200 hostages were released by Hamas or saved by the Israeli military in the course of the war, which has been going on for 18 months. The Gaza War was triggered by the unprecedented massacre that Hamas terrorists and other Islamists had committed in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

(APA/dpa/Reuters)