JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's military said Wednesday that it will call up tens of thousands of reservists and extend the service of others ahead of an expanded military operation it will carry out in Gaza City.
Defense Minister Israel Katz approved plans to begin a new phase of operations in some of Gaza’s most densely populated areas, the military said. The plan, which is expected to receive the chief of staff's final approval in the coming days, includes calling up 60,000 reservists and extending the service of 20,000 others who are currently serving.
In a country of fewer than 10 million people, the call-up of so many reservists carries economic and political weight, and comes just days after hundreds of thousands of Israelis rallied for a ceasefire.
It also comes as negotiators scramble to get Israel and Hamas to agree to end their 22 months of fighting, and as international leaders and rights groups warn that an expanded assault could deepen the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where most of its roughly 2 million residents have been displaced, many areas have been reduced to rubble, and the population faces the threat of famine.
A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said troops will operate in parts of Gaza City where they haven't been deployed yet and where Israel believes Hamas is still active. Israeli troops in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and Jabaliya, a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, are already preparing the groundwork for the expanded operation.
Gaza City is Hamas’ military and governing stronghold, and one of the last places of refuge in the northern Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering. Israeli troops will be targeting Hamas’ vast underground tunnel network there, the official added.
Although Israel has targeted and killed much of Hamas’ senior leadership, parts of the militant group are actively regrouping and carrying out attacks, including launching rockets towards Israel, the official said.
It remains unclear when the operation will begin, but it could be a matter of days and the mobilization of reservists would be the largest in months.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war's objectives are to secure the release of remaining hostages and ensure that Hamas and other militants can never again threaten Israel.
The planned offensive, which was announced earlier this month, comes amid heightened international condemnation of Israel's restrictions on food and medicine reaching Gaza and fears of another mass displacement among Palestinians.
Associated Press journalists saw small groups heading south from the city this week, but it's unclear how many others will voluntarily flee. Some said they would wait to see how events unfold before moving yet again, with many insisting that nowhere is safe from airstrikes.
“What we’re seeing in Gaza is nothing short of apocalyptic reality for children, for their families, and for this generation,” Ahmed Alhendawi, regional director of Save the Children, said in an interview. “The plight and the struggle of this generation of Gaza is beyond being described in words.”
The call-up comes as a growing campaign of exhausted reservists accuses the government of perpetuating the war for political reasons and failing to bring home the 50 remaining hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
The hostages' families and former army and intelligence chiefs have also expressed opposition to the expanded operation in Gaza City. Most of the families want an immediate ceasefire and worry that an expanded assault could imperil securing the hostages' release.
Guy Poran, a retired air force pilot who has organized veterans campaigning to end the war, said many reservists are exhausted after repeated tours lasting hundreds of days and resentful of those who haven't been called up at all. Most now just want to return to their lives.
“Even those that are not ideologically against the current war or the government's new plans don't want to go because of fatigue or their families or their businesses,” he said.
Hamas-led militants started the war when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas says it will only free the rest in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
Arab mediators and Hamas said this week that the militant group's leaders had agreed to the terms of a proposed ceasefire, though similar announcements have been made in the past that didn't lead to a lasting truce.
Egypt and Qatar have said they have been waiting for Israel’s response to the proposal. “The ball is now in Israel’s court,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Bader Abdelattay said Tuesday.
An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media said Israel is in constant contact with the mediators in an effort to secure the hostages' release.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will oppose a deal that doesn't include the “complete defeat of Hamas.”
More than 62,122 people have been killed during Israel's offensive, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The ministry does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants, but it said women and children make up around half of them.
In addition to that toll, 154 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since late June, when the ministry began counting such deaths, and 112 children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war began.
Israel’s far-right national security minister on Wednesday released footage of Israeli prisons showing Palestinian inmates images of Gaza’s destruction.
A video posted on Telegram by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shows him pointing to an image of Palestinians walking amid rubble and half-collapsed buildings, saying they were being shown to security prisoners.
“So they understand that the people of Israel are not messing around,” he wrote.
Ben-Gvir’s prison visit comes amid a string of provocative moves. It’s less than a week after he published a video of himself admonishing an imprisoned Palestinian leader in a face-to-face meeting inside a prison, saying Israel will confront anyone who acts against the country and “wipe them out.”
Earlier this month, he visited and prayed at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, triggering regional condemnation and fears that the provocative move could further escalate tensions.
Netanyahu’s government depends on backing from the far right, which opposes negotiations for a phased ceasefire in Gaza. Ben-Gvir said Monday that Netanyahu didn’t have a mandate to pursue such a truce.
The far-right bloc nabbed a victory on Wednesday when Israel gave final approval for a controversial settlement project east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. The development in what’s called E1 would effectively cut the territory in two, and Palestinians and rights groups say it could destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state.
Israel’s military said Wednesday that it killed a Hamas militant who stormed a kibbutz and abducted Yarden Bibas, a father of three whose wife and two young children were also kidnapped on Oct. 7.
The Bibas family became one of Israel’s most closely followed hostage cases after body-camera footage of the mother and her young children being abducted was circulated widely in Israel and abroad. The three were later killed during the war, while Yarden Bibas was released.
In a statement, Bibas called the killing of his alleged kidnapper “a small part of my closure” and said he was still awaiting the return of hostages held in Gaza.
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This story was corrected to reflect that the Jabaliya refugee camp is not in Gaza City. ___ Lidman and Magdy reported from Tel Aviv, Israel and Cairo.
