The Israeli military launched a new operation in the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages, the defense minister said on Saturday.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Operation Gideon Chariots began and was being led with “great force” by Israel’s army.
“The heroism of IDF soldiers, the unity of the people and the determination of the political echelon increase the chance of the return of the hostages – as it was then and as it is now,” he said.
JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images 
The operation follows days of intensive strikes across the territory that killed hundreds of people.
IDF spokesperson Col. Avichai Adraee, in a videotaped statement from the Gaza Strip, said troops were “expanding and increasing the bombing and pressure on Hamas throughout the Strip – from north to south, above and below ground, and even outside the Strip.”
The army said it will not stop until the hostages are returned and Hamas dismantled.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed earlier in the week to escalate pressure on Hamas with the aim of destroying the militant group that has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades.
More than 150 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. It said more than 3,000 have been killed since Israel broke a January ceasefire on March 18.
Humanitarian crisis continues
The operation also comes as U.S. President Trump concluded his trip to the Middle East without a visit to Israel.
There had been hope that Mr. Trump’s visit to the region could increase chances of a ceasefire deal or the resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza, which Israel has prevented for nearly three months.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Netanyahu by phone Saturday from Rome. They discussed the ongoing war in Gaza and their joint efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages, spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
On Friday, Mr. Trump echoed a warning call that people were starving in the besieged Palestinian territory.
“We’re looking at Gaza. And we’re going to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving,” the president told reporters.
Israel has imposed a blockade for over two months on Gaza, leading United Nations agencies and other humanitarian groups to warn of rapidly dwindling fuel, food and medicine supplies in the Palestinian territory that, before the war, was home to about 2.4 million people.
Food security experts say Gaza will be in famine if the blockade isn’t lifted.
Abdel Kareem Hana / AP 
The Israeli government has repeatedly denied that Gaza is facing starvation and said the blockade is to force Hamas to release the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack.
According to the World Food Programme, there are at least 14,000 children in Gaza who are malnourished.
One of those children is Najwa Hajaj, who had to be discharged from a hospital because it ran out of food and medicine. Her mother says the 6-year-old girl weighs just 13 lbs, which is the average weight of a 3-month-old baby.
Ongoing talks in Doha
Qatari Prime Minister Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told Fox News his government helped persuade Hamas to carry out the release, which was meant to be a first step toward having a complete hostage deal. However, the prime minister said a massacre at a hospital in Gaza the next day scuttled those efforts.
On Saturday, there is a renewed push by mediators from Egypt and Qatar, along with U.S. support, to see if a ceasefire agreement can be reached that would release the remaining hostages and end the three-month Israel blockade in Gaza.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Margaret Brennan
contributed to this report.
