ISRAELI troops will remain indefinitely in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria, Defence Minister Israel Katz said today, and continue to occupy so-called security zones.

Tel Aviv’s forces have taken over more than half of Gaza in a renewed invasion after Israel ended a ceasefire last month. 

Israel has also refused to withdraw from some areas in Lebanon following a ceasefire with Hezbollah last year. In addition, it seized a buffer zone in southern Syria after rebels overthrew president Bashar al-Assad in December.

Mr Katz said today that the Israeli military was “not evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized” but would “remain in the security zones as a buffer between the enemy and [Israeli] communities in any temporary or permanent situation in Gaza — as in Lebanon and Syria.”

The Palestinians, Lebanon and Syria have condemned the presence of Israeli troops as a military occupation that violates international law. 

Hamas has warned that it will not release dozens of hostages it still holds from its October 7 2023 attack on southern Israel without a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a lasting ceasefire.

“They promised that the hostages would come first. In practice, Israel is choosing to seize territory before the hostages,” the main organisation representing their families said in a statement.

“There is one solution that is desirable and feasible and that is the release of all the hostages at once as part of an agreement, even at the cost of ending the war,” the group said.

Israel claims it must maintain control of the “security zones” to prevent a repeat of the 2023 Hamas attack, during which 1,139 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Israel’s subsequent invasion has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, with women and children making up more than half the dead. 

Around 90 per cent of the roughly two million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, many on multiple occasions. Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid tent camps with dwindling food after Israel sealed off the territory from all imports more than a month ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annihilate Hamas, return the 59 hostages still in Gaza and then implement US President Donald Trump’s proposal to deport much of Gaza’s population to other countries.

Mr Netanyahu refers to it as “voluntary emigration,” but Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected the proposal as a probable violation of international law.