Annexation on the table? Israel warns Hamas it will annex Gazan territory for every hostage it harms – report

For the first time during this war, Israel has reportedly threatened to annex parts of the Gaza Strip as a means of pressuring the Hamas terror group.

According to a Channel 12 news report on Tuesday evening, Israel has conveyed the message to Hamas that it will officially declare part of the Gaza Strip as Israeli territory in retaliation for any harm to the hostages.

The report comes amid the renewal of Israeli airstrikes against terror targets in the enclave.

In response, Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, implicitly threatened the hostages, claiming that Israel is sacrificing the lives of its remaining hostages in Gaza by resuming the war. 

“Netanyahu’s decision to return to war is a decision to sacrifice the prisoners of the occupation and a death sentence against them,” al-Risheq told CNN.

“The enemy will not achieve through war and destruction what it has failed to achieve through negotiations.” 

On the other side, many family members of the remaining hostages, along with former hostages, have protested against the decision to return to war, arguing that this put the hostages at higher risk.

Freed hostage Noa Argamani, whose partner Avinatan Or is still being held captive, wrote on 𝕏: “Fighting Resumes. Two words, and so many emotions inside. Suddenly, out of the silence, all hopes explode in an instant. Two words, but for the hostages inside, they mean explosions and noises that bring back the fear of dying.”

“I remember how, in November '23, we heard the word hudna – a ceasefire – for the first time… But then, in a single moment, we started hearing the explosions again. Suddenly, all the dreams of going home, of hugging family and friends – shattered in an instant,” Argamani wrote.

Former hostages have reported after their release that Hamas terrorists were preparing to murder them when they saw IDF troops closing in.

According to Channel 12, the Israeli threat is designed to leverage Hamas’ most critical concern, as the potential loss of territory poses an even greater threat to the terror group than the loss of its fighters or civilians.

Many experts in Israel, particularly those on the political right, have long demanded that the Israeli government threaten to annex territory, arguing this would be the only effective deterrence against an Islamist terror group.

Human rights organizations over the months have alleged that Israel is already advancing de-facto annexation – or preparing for it – with the creation of a buffer zone along the Gaza border.

News outlets have used satellite photos to show that Israel has demolished all buildings and infrastructure within a roughly one-kilometer-wide strip along the border.

According to the Associated Press, such a buffer zone alone would subtract about 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) out of a total of around 360 square kilometers (139 square miles).

While the Channel 12 report didn’t specify which areas would be annexed, it’s possible that Israel would officially declare parts of this buffer zone as sovereign Israeli territory.

In response to the report by the AP, the Israel Defense Forces stated that it “takes various imperative actions that are needed in order to implement a defense plan that will provide improved security in southern Israel.”

An Israeli government official told the outlet that a “temporary security buffer zone” is under construction.