Israel's Smotrich says victory means Gaza fully 'destroyed'

Germany's new Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Israel was "a cause of great concern" for the new government in Berlin.

"Humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip must be ensured," Merz said.

He spoke to public broadcaster ARD after he had been elected as new chancellor in the second round of voting in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament.

Merz also said the Israeli government must fulfill its obligations under international law and humanitarian law. 

While reaffirming that Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas militants, Merz noted that this right comes with responsibilities.

"Israel must also remain a country that lives up to its humanitarian obligations, even where — especially where this terrible war is now raging in the Gaza Strip — where this confrontation with the Hamas terrorists is necessarily taking place," he said.

Merz said his new foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, is set to travel to Israel this weekend.

President Donald Trump said the United States would stop bombing Yemen's Houthis after the Iran-backed rebels allegedly begged for a truce.

"They said please don't bomb us any more and we're not going to attack your ships," Trump told reporters, referring to the faction disrupting shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the group's supreme revolutionary committee, said they will review the US decision to stop "aggression" against Yemen.

Writing on X, he said the group would continue to support Gaza. 

Meanwhile Oman said it mediated a ceasefire deal between the Houthis and the US. According to a statement from Oman, neither side will target the other, including US vessels in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

There was no mention of Houthi attacks on Israel. 

The Iran-backed group has been attacking Israel and shipping in the Red Sea since 2023 in retaliation for Israel's war in Gaza. The group has since been classified as a terrorist organization by the US.

In March, Trump ordered a sustained bombing campaign against the Houthis.

The Israeli military says it has launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, fully disabling the country's main international airport in the capital, Sanaa.

The military also said it had struck several power plants. It had earlier warned people to leave the area around the main airport in Yemen's Sanaa, a day after it struck the Yemeni port of Hodeidah. 

The Israeli attack on Monday killed four people and injured 39, according to the Houthi health officials. It came in response to a Houthi missile that landed near Israel's Ben Gurion airport  a day earlier.

Foreign airlines had began to resume flights to Israel in recent months, but some companies responded to the latest attack by halting flights once again.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described his idea of Israel's victory over the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas as Gaza being "destroyed" and its civilian inhabitants evacuated.

"Gaza will be entirely destroyed, civilians will be sent to... the south to a humanitarian zone without Hamas or terrorism, and from there they will start to leave in great numbers to third countries," the firebrand politician told a conference in the Israeli settlement of Ofra in the occupied West Bank.

Smotrich also expressed his hope that the occupied West Bank would be formally annexed during the current government's term, which could last until late next year.

France has said it "strongly condemns" the Israeli plan to conquer the Gaza Strip and its new military campaign in the Palestinian territory, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday.

"It is unacceptable," said Barrot in an interview with the broadcaster RTL, adding that the Israeli government "violates humanitarian law."

"What is urgent is a ceasefire and unhindered access to humanitarian aid, massively," Barrot added.

His comments came a day after the Israeli security cabinet announced that it had adopted a plan to expand the military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which includes the "conquest" of the Palestinian enclave and control of the territories seized.

This plan would also entail the internal displacement of the majority of Gazans, according to the army.

Virtually all of the Gaza Strip's inhabitants — some 2.4 million people — have been displaced several times since the war in the territory began in October 2023.

After the revelation of an Israeli plan to conquer the Gaza Strip, a senior official with the militant Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas said the group rejected all further ceasefire talks.

"There is no point in holding talks or considering new proposals for a ceasefire as long as the war of hunger and annihilation in the Gaza Strip continues," Hamas representative Basem Naim told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.

Hamas is labeled as terror group by many nations, including Germany and the US.

Naim said the world must pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the "crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings" in Gaza.
 

Welcome to our coverage of the ongoing conflict in Gaza where Israel has said it will intensify attacks and displace people within the enclave.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said his vision of victory inlcudes the Gaza Strip being "entirely destroyed" with civilians relocated at the end of the after the ongoing war with Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Separately, Israel said it bombed the main airport in Yemen's capital Saana, after hitting the port city of Hodeidah the day before.

Israel's offensive in Gaza has so far killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, the majority of which are civilians, according to the Hamas-rung Gaza Health Ministry.

The current conflict broke out on October 7, 2023, when militants led by Hamas — designated a terror group by Germany, Israel and the US among others — launched a major assault on Israel resulting in the deaths of more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians.