Israel issues new forced displacement orders for north Gaza
The Israeli army’s Arabic language spokesperson has issued the order via a post on X “To all residents of the Gaza Strip located in Blocks 608, 609, 615, 616 in the northern Gaza Strip area … This is a warning before the attack,” he said. These areas of the Gaza Strip are located east of Jabalia in the north.
The spokesman claimed, without providing evidence, that the areas in question are used to launch rockets. Roughly 80 percent of the Gaza Strip is currently under some kind of forced displacement order, leaving Palestinians fewer places to flee to.
Israel confirms it is arming Hamas rivals in operation opposition calls ‘complete madness’
https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/06/middleeast/israel-arming-hamas-rivals-gaza-intl
Israel is arming local militias in Gaza in an effort to counter Hamas in the besieged enclave, officials say, as opposition politicians warned that the move endangers national security.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the covert enterprise on Thursday, calling it “a good thing.” In a video posted on social media, Netanyahu said Israel had “activated clans in Gaza which oppose Hamas,” and that it was done “under the advice of security elements.”
Former defense minister and Netanyahu rival Avigdor Liberman divulged the move on Israel’s Ch. 12 News on Wednesday, saying that Israel was distributing rifles to extremist groups in Gaza and describing the operation as “complete madness.”
“We’re talking about the equivalent of ISIS in Gaza,” Liberman said one day later on Israel’s Army Radio, adding that Israel is providing weapons to “crime families in Gaza on Netanyahu’s orders.”
“No one can guarantee that these weapons will not be directed towards Israel,” he said, a warning echoed by one of the officials who spoke with CNN. After Liberman’s revelation, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying, “Israel is acting to defeat Hamas in various ways upon the recommendation of the heads of the security establishment.”
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Meanwhile, Hamas said the plan revealed “a grave and undeniable truth.” In a statement, the militant group said: “The Israeli occupation army is arming criminal gangs in the Gaza Strip with the aim of creating a state of insecurity and social chaos.”
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Opposition politicians ripped Netanyahu for the plan to arm militias and the secrecy around it, lambasting it as a continuation of the Israeli leader’s decision to allow millions of dollars in cash to travel from Qatar to Gaza beginning in late 2018. They accused him of strengthening Hamas in the past as an alternative to the rival Palestinian Fatah faction, and now arming gangs as an alternative to Hamas.
“After Netanyahu finished handing over millions of dollars to Hamas, he moved on to supplying weapons to groups in Gaza affiliated with ISIS – all improvised, with no strategic planning, and all leading to more disasters,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said on social media.
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Yair Golan, head of the left-wing Democrats party, said in a post on social media: “Instead of bringing about a deal, making arrangements with the moderate Sunni axis, and returning the hostages and security to Israeli citizens, he is creating a new ticking bomb in Gaza.”
