Israel launches new offensive to pressure Hamas to release hostages as food crisis continues in Gaza

The Israeli army launched a new operation in the Gaza pull To press Hamas to free the reminiscent hostages, said the Minister of Defense on Saturday.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Operation Gideon Charms began and was being directed with “great strength” by the Israel Army.

“The heroism of the FDI soldiers, the unity of the people and the determination of the political step increase the possibility that the return of the hostages, as it was then and as it is now,” he said.

The operation follows days of intensive strikes through the territory that killed hundreds of people.

IDF spokesman, Colonel Avichai Adraee, in a video recorded video of the Gaza Strip, said the troops were “expanding and increasing bombardment and pressure on Hamas through the strip, from north to south, above and below the ground, and even out of the strip.”

The army said it will not stop until the hostages are returned and dismantled.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, promised In the early week to increase pressure on Hamas With the aim of destroying the militant group that Gaza has ruled for almost two decades.

More than 150 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health led by Hamas. He said that more than 3000 have been killed since Israel broke the fire of January on March 18.

Humanitarian crisis continues

The operation also occurs when the president of the United States, Trump concluded his trip to Middle East without a visit to Israel.

There had been hope that Mr. Trump’s visit to the region could increase the possibilities of a high fire agreement or the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Israel has avoided for almost three months.

The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, spoke with Netanyahu on Saturday from Rome. They discussed the ongoing war in Gaza and their joint efforts to ensure the release of all the removal hostages, said spokesman Tammy Bruce.

On Friday, Mr. Trump echoed a warning call that people were looking at the Palestinian territory.

“We are looking at Gaza. And we are going to take care of those tasks. Many people are looking at,” the president told journalists.

Israel has imposed a blockade for approximately two months to Gaza, leading the United Nations agencies and other humanitarian groups to warn that fuel supplies, food and medicines in the Palestinian territory that, before the war, was home to approximately 2.4.

Food security experts say that Gaza will be hungry if the blockade does not get up.

The Israeli government has repeatedly denied that Gaza face the starvation and said that the blockade is to force Hamas to free hostage tasks in the October 7 attack.

According to the World Food Program, there are at least 14,000 children in Gaza who are malnourished.

One of those children is Najwa Hajaj, who had to be dictated from a hospital because he ran out of food and medicine. His mother says that the 6 -year -old girl weighs only 13 pounds, which is the average weight of a 3 -month -old baby.

“She is dying in my hands, and I can’t do anything,” said her father, Hussain Hajaj, to CBS News. “I can barely feed it, I don’t know what to do.”

Ons speaks in Doha

Meanwhile, the negotiations led by Qatar and Egyptians to negotiate a high fire in the war between Israel and Hamas are underway in Doha. After the conversations between Qatar and Mr. Trump last week, there is a renewed impulse by mediators of the United States and Qatar to reach an agreement, a source with knowledge of the conversations confirmed to CBS News.

A delegation of Hamas is celebrating a critical meeting with Qatar Minister of Foreign Affairs and a delegation that represents Egyptian intelligence with respect to prison exchange negotiations, a source told CBS News. An Israel delegation also participates in the conversations, confirmed Israel Katz Israeli Minister.

Steve Witkoff, a special US envoy to the Middle East, is actively working on Saturday when trying to build a high -type mechanism to release more hostages, confirmed CBS News. Witkoff had helped negotiate the deal with Hamas to release the Last host of Israel-American, Edan AlexanderA few days before Trump’s trip through the region.

Qatar Prime Minister Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani told Fox News that his government helped persuade Hamas to carry out liberation, which was meean to be a first step to have a complete hostage agreement. However, the prime minister said that a massacre in a hospital in Gaza the next day sank those efforts.

On Saturday, there is a renovated impulse by mediators of Egypt and Qatar, together with the support of the United States, to see if you can reach a high fire agreement that releases the rehemotid hostages and ends the blockade of the three months of Israel in Gaza.

The war begged on October 7, 2023, when the terrorists led by Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping another 251. The retaliation offensive of Israel has He killed more than 53,000 PalestiniansMany of them women and children, according to the Ministry of Health of Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.