
Israel prepares to move Palestinians to southern Gaza as Israelis urge mass protest over conflict
Global News
Israel plans to relocate Palestinians in Gaza ahead of new offensives in dense areas. Families of hostages call for national protests; airstrikes, malnutrition toll rise.
Israel announced Saturday that it is preparing to move Palestinians from combat zones to southern Gaza as plans move ahead for a military offensive in some of the territory’s most populated areas.
The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, said the supply of tents to the territory would resume on Sunday. The military said it had no comment on when the mass movement of Palestinians would begin, but Defense Minister Israel Katz said on social media that “we are now in the stage of discussions to finalize the plan to defeat Hamas in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, anxious families of Israeli hostages called for a “nationwide day of stoppage” in Israel on Sunday to express growing frustration over 22 months of conflict.
Families of hostages fear the coming offensive further endangers the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza, just 20 of them thought to still be alive. They and other Israelis were horrified by the recent release of videos showing emaciated hostages speaking under duress and pleading for help and food.
The families and supporters have pressed the government for a deal to stop the conflict— a call that some former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs have made as well in recent weeks.
A group representing the families has urged Israelis into the streets on Sunday. “Across the country, hundreds of citizen-led initiatives will pause daily life and join the most just and moral struggle: the struggle to bring all 50 hostages home,” it said in a statement.
“I want to believe that there is hope, and it will not come from above, it will come only from us,” said Dana Silberman Sitton, sister of Shiri Bibas and aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were killed in captivity.
She spoke at a weekly rally in Tel Aviv, along with Pushpa Joshi, sister of kidnapped Nepalese hostage Bipin Joshi, a student seized from a kibbutz.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted his European allies Thursday for what he portrayed as the continent’s slow, fragmented and inadequate response to Russia’s invasion nearly four years ago and its continued international aggression. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy listed a litany of grievances and criticisms of Europe that he said have left Ukraine at...












