Israel will continue its new offensive in Gaza until Hamas releases all hostages and “all threats to residents of the south [of Israel] are removed”, the country’s defence minister said on Tuesday, raising the prospect of many weeks or even months of war in the devastated Palestinian territory.
“Hamas must understand that the rules of the game have changed,” Israel Katz told reporters during a visit to an airbase, adding that “the gates of hell will open and it will face the full might of the IDF in the air, at sea and on land” if remaining hostages were not freed.
The threat came after Israel launched a wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400 people, shattering the pause in hostilities since mid-January in Gaza in the bloodiest single day of violence since the first months of the war in 2023.
Come the fuck on Guardian you just lopped off the bad half of that statement. Israel says new Gaza offensive will continue until all hostages released and all threats to residents of the south [of Israel] are removed.
Sounds an awful lot like they’re describing some ethnic cleansing with extra steps, and a fig leaf over it so it doesn’t look quite so bad at first glance, and it looks extremely bad at first glance.