JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH/GAZA/CAIRO – Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Israel would not withdraw from its current positions inside Gaza until Hamas was removed and the enclave was demilitarized, tying any further pullback to conditions Israel says have not yet been met.
Katz, speaking at a state memorial ceremony for soldiers, said Israeli forces would remain along what Israel calls the "Yellow Line", a deployment line inside Gaza established under an October 2025 ceasefire.
He also threatened a mass evacuation of Gaza City if an Israeli soldier or civilian were abducted, saying Israel had received information about possible kidnapping attempts.
"If a single Israeli soldier or civilian is abducted, the entire city of Gaza will be evacuated of its one million residents to the south, and will be treated in the same way that Rafah and Beit Hanoun were treated, until he is returned," Katz said.
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In a daily report, Gaza-based health authorities said 1,399 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect in October last year, bringing the death toll from Oct 7, 2023, to 73,919.
The ceasefire halted Israel's large-scale offensive, but Israeli strikes have continued. A US-backed Gaza peace plan envisages further Israeli withdrawals alongside the disarmament of Hamas, but implementation has stalled.
Israel accused of 'mass detention'
On Tuesday, Palestinian Vice-President Hussein al-Sheikh accused the Israeli government of turning Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank into "mass detention camps".
In a statement, al-Sheikh cited "iron gates and checkpoints", and the uprooting of "olive trees from hundreds of dunams of land".
He called on countries worldwide to intervene to "protect the Palestinian people from racism and ethnic cleansing", and urged the UN, during its ongoing meetings, to adopt measures to oblige Israel to "halt all its measures".
Israel urged to fulfill Gaza peace plan commitments
Meanwhile, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Pakistan and Indonesia have called on Israel to immediately fulfill its commitments under the first phase of the Gaza peace plan, including ensuring the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid and facilitating the rehabilitation of critical infrastructure, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
The foreign ministers of the eight countries on Monday expressed deep concern over the continued humanitarian suffering in Gaza and stressed "the imperative of preserving the ceasefire and ending all violations", the ministry said in a joint statement.
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The ministers said the roadmap provides the framework for advancing the second phase of the US-proposed Gaza peace plan, including decommissioning alongside full Israeli withdrawal, deployment of the International Stabilization Force and launch of early recovery and reconstruction across Gaza.
They also reiterated their "categorical rejection" of any measures aimed at expelling or forcibly displacing Palestinians or altering the territorial or demographic character of the occupied Palestinian territory, while calling for an immediate reversal of Israeli settlement expansion and related measures.
