Israeli military will call up 50,000 reservists as it plans new phase of war in Gaza
Speaking on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly, the official said that the military will be operating in parts of Gaza City where the Israeli military has not yet operated and where Hamas is still active.
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New York Times
10 minutes ago
- New York Times
‘We Can't Take It Anymore': Gazans Fear Looming Israeli Operation
When Israel announced its plan to invade Gaza City in early August, Hassan Shehada scrambled to find an apartment in towns south of the city. For a week, Mr. Shehad, a 62-year-old textile factory owner, made calls to friends and colleagues in Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat and al-Zawayda, asking for help in securing a place for him and his family. Since the start of the war, he had been displaced six times, and each time he had managed to find an apartment to house his family. This time, however, his efforts failed. 'We've had enough, we're not going anywhere,' Mr. Shehada said. 'We're so tired and we can't take it anymore.' The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it is moving ahead with its preparations to invade all of Gaza City, with a plan to call up 60,000 reservists and extend the duty of 20,000 others. Troops will conduct a 'gradual, precise and targeted' operation in and around the city, said an Israeli military official said, requesting anonymity to comply with military protocol. The offensive, the official said, is intended to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping and planning future attacks, and it would extend into parts of Gaza City that Israeli soldiers have not previously attacked or held during the war. Israel's plan to invade Gaza City, the most populous city in northern Gaza, has forced thousands of residents like Mr. Shehada to consider uprooting themselves to the central and southern parts of the territory, away from the planned operation. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Associated Press
10 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Huckabee blames Europe for stalled Gaza talks, highlighting a growing Western divide
JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee sought Wednesday to blame a recent breakdown in Gaza ceasefire talks on the decision by some European leaders to recognize Palestinian statehood. Talks over a lasting ceasefire have repeatedly stalled since the early months of the war sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack — and long before there was any talk of major European states recognizing Palestinian statehood. The decisions were announced by France, Britain and other countries after the Trump administration's Mideast envoy had already walked away in frustration from the negotiations, which happened behind closed doors. It's unclear how and when they began to break down. But Huckabee's remarks in an interview with The Associated Press point to a sharp divide among Western nations about how to approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the rift has only deepened since President Donald Trump took office. Many European countries have sought to pressure Israel — the stronger party — and frame the pursuit of a two-state solution as a way to address the root causes of a conflict that long predates the war in Gaza. But the Trump administration has given Israel wide latitude to end the war on its terms. A dispute over which side should be pressured The White House fully supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to end an earlier ceasefire that Trump had helped broker and resume wide-ranging military operations, during which Israel prevented food, medicine and other goods from entering Gaza for more than two months. Trump appears to have adopted Israel's position that further military pressure — including a planned offensive into some of the most densely populated areas of Gaza — will force Hamas to surrender. 'We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!' Trump posted this week on his Truth Social site. Meanwhile, France, Britain and more than two dozen other Western-aligned nations have expressed mounting outrage at Israel's actions, demanding that it halt the fighting and do more to facilitate humanitarian aid. The moves to recognize Palestinians statehood — which were largely symbolic — were in part aimed at pressuring Israel to halt its offensive. Britain explicitly linked the two, saying it would hold off on recognizing a Palestinian state if Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza, stopped building settlements in the West Bank and committed to a two-state solution. Israel's current government and most of its political class were opposed to Palestinian statehood even before the war, and they now say it would reward Hamas and allow the militants to eventually carry out more Oct. 7-style attacks. 'A counterproductive effect' Huckabee, who is himself a longtime opponent of Palestinian statehood, said the 'noise that has been made by European leaders recently ... is having the counterproductive effect that they probably think that they want.' 'If they believe that unilaterally calling for a two-state, a Palestinian state recognition, immediately brings them closer, the sad truth is it's taking them further away,' he said. The AP sought comment from the foreign ministries of France and Britain, which did not immediately respond. Most Palestinians believe the decades-old conflict is rooted in Israel's military occupation of lands they want for an independent state and its continuous expansion of Jewish settlements. Attempts to negotiate a two-state solution going back to the early 1990s repeatedly broke down as violence flared, and no serious or substantive talks have been held since Netanyahu returned to office in 2009. On Wednesday, Israel approved plans for settlements in an area known as E1 outside Jerusalem, which the Palestinians and others say will cut the West Bank in half and make the establishment of a viable and contiguous state virtually impossible. Past U.S. administrations joined their Western allies in vehemently opposing such plans. Trump and Huckabee — a strong supporter of Israeli settlements — did not. Ceasefire talks have shown signs of progress The ceasefire talks have continued, with Hamas saying this week that it accepted a proposal from Arab mediators that is similar to an earlier one advanced by the U.S. and accepted by Israel. Israel and the U.S. have not yet responded to the offer. Huckabee said he could not elaborate on the talks beyond saying he would not trust that Hamas is serious until they 'put their signatures on it' and that the group could be 'stringing this along,' as the U.S. and Israel have alleged in the past. The main disagreement has been over the conditions in which the war would end. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, while Israel says it is committed to returning all the hostages, defeating and disarming Hamas, and maintaining lasting security control over the territory. In Israel, many blame Netanyahu for the failure of the talks, accusing him of seeking to prolong the war in order to keep his far-right governing coalition intact. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets over the weekend to protest his planned offensive and call for a deal to return the captives. ___ Follow AP's war coverage at
CNN
10 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump's ‘war hero' comment is merely his latest flippant comparison of himself to troops
President Donald Trump has made it abundantly clear that his lack of military service is a sore spot for him. He told the Washington Post in 2015 of his repeated Vietnam-era deferments: 'I've always felt somewhat guilty because I didn't serve like many other people.' In 2019 he cited a desire to 'make up for it.' His method of compensating for that? Comparing his sacrifices to those of actual service members. Trump's comments on 'The Mark Levin Show' on Tuesday might be his most stunning yet. He explicitly labeled himself a 'war hero' because of his decisions on the use of military force. '[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is] a war hero because we work together. He's a war hero,' Trump told Levin, adding: 'I guess I am too.' 'Nobody cares, but I am too,' Trump continued. 'I mean, I sent those planes,' he added, referring to US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites earlier this summer. These kinds of comments would cause a political scandal lasting days or weeks in any era not already so saturated with Trump-fueled controversies. Whatever the difficult choices the president makes as commander in chief, they don't compare to troops putting their lives in harm's way. His remarks – which recall his 2015 attack on then-Sen. John McCain for not being a 'war hero' because he was captured – are the latest in a long line of flippant Trump comments comparing himself to service members. Sometimes, they're offered in a joking manner. Few explicitly equate Trump to troops. But the totality of them suggests the president would very much like people to view his travails as being comparable to those of the troops. Trump told 2015 biographer Michael D'Antonio said that his attendance at a military-themed boarding school meant that he 'always felt that I was in the military.' 'I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people,' Trump said, adding that he'd had 'more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.' In 2016, when the father of a slain Army captain suggested Trump's sacrifices didn't compare to his family's, Trump told ABC News: 'I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard.' When pressed on whether working hard was really such a sacrifice, he doubled down. 'I think when I can employ thousands and thousands of people, take care of their education, take care of so many things,' Trump said. 'Even in the military, I mean, I was responsible along with a group of people for getting the Vietnam Memorial built in downtown Manhattan, which to this day people thank me for.' Donald Trump Jr. made a similar case in 2019. He recalled driving through Arlington National Cemetery, seeing the many white gravestones, and having it remind him of his family's 'sacrifices' in facing political attacks and giving up millions in business. By 2019, the elder Trump quipped about having wanted a Medal of Honor and even asking about giving himself one, before being dissuaded. In an interview with Piers Morgan that year, he added of his lack of service, 'I think I make up for that right now' by pushing for increased military funding. And in 2020 he said while discussing McCain: 'I will be a better warrior than anybody.' Trump's 2023 Memorial Day message on Truth Social was in a similar vein. After wishing a happy holiday to those who made the 'ultimate sacrifice,' he extended the same wishes to others who faced 'a very different, but equally dangerous fire.' He said that included those combating the 'misfits and lunatic thugs who are working feverishly from within to overturn and destroy our once great country.' You have to read between the lines a bit, but Trump was effectively saying the political battles he and his movement faced were 'equally dangerous' to the threats faced by fallen troops. Trump has returned to this theme since surviving two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign. In October, Trump compared the iconography of him emerging from the Pennsylvania attempt, with a bloodied ear and fist in the air, to the Iwo Jima Memorial. 'You're not supposed to be alive for iconic,' Trump said. 'But they say it's the most … I think Iwo Jima is right there. They took a lot of bullets putting up the flag.' And just two weeks ago, while marking National Purple Heart Day at the White House, he thanked service members for sending him their Purple Hearts, adding: 'I guess, in a certain way, it wasn't that easy for me either, when you think of it.' 'But you went through a lot more than I did, and I appreciate it all very much,' Trump added. On these last two counts, Trump has a more credible comparison. He literally came under fire and was wounded during his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. But his repeated comparisons to service members well predate that. And Trump's new 'war hero' comment alludes to an entirely different justification. His allies will see jokes or harmless provocations – or perhaps a little bit of overcompensation. It's true that Trump has rarely literally equated himself to troops, as he did Tuesday, and he's sometimes taken care to specify that he's just comparing, not equating. But the sanctity of military service isn't supposed to be trifled with because it risks diminishing that sacrifice. And Trump just keeps trifling with it.
