Israeli army says first steps of Gaza operation start
"We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City, and already now IDF forces are holding the outskirts of Gaza City," Brigadier General Effie Defrin, Israel's military spokesman, told reporters.
A military official briefing reporters earlier on Wednesday said reserve soldiers would not report for duty until September, an interval that gives mediators some time to bridge gaps between Hamas and Israel over truce terms.
But after Israeli troops clashed with Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the Israeli leader sped up the timeline for taking control of Hamas strongholds and defeating the militant group that triggered the conflict with an attack on Israel in October 2023.
The Israeli statements signalled Israel was pressing ahead with its plan to seize the Gaza' Strip's biggest urban centre despite international criticism of an operation likely to force the displacement of many more Palestinians.
Defrin said troops were already operating on the outskirts of Gaza City, and Hamas was now a "battered and bruised" guerrilla force.
"We will deepen the attack on Hamas in Gaza City, a stronghold of governmental and military terror for the terrorist organisation," the spokesman said.
Israel's military called up tens of thousands of reservists on Wednesday in preparation for the expected assault on Gaza City as the Israeli government considered a new truce proposal.
Israel's security cabinet, chaired by Netanyahu, approved a plan this month to expand the campaign in the enclave with the aim of taking Gaza City, where Israeli forces waged fierce urban warfare with Hamas in the early stages of the war.
Israel currently holds about 75 per cent of the Gaza Strip.
Many of Israel's closest allies have urged the government to reconsider but Netanyahu is under pressure from some ultranationalist members of his coalition to reject a temporary ceasefire, continue the war and pursue the annexation of the territory.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced final approval on Wednesday of a widely condemned Israeli plan for a settlement project in the occupied West Bank that he said would erase any prospect of a Palestinian state.
The war in the Gaza Strip began on October 7, 2023, when gunmen led by Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities near the border, killing about 1200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages including children into the enclave, according to Israeli figures.
More than 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war in the Gaza Strip since then, according to Gazan health officials, who do not say how many were militants but have said most of those killed have been women and children.
Hamas has accepted a proposal put forward by Arab mediators for a 60-day ceasefire that would involve releasing some of the remaining hostages and freeing Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
The Israeli government, which has said all the 50 remaining hostages must be released at once, is studying the proposal.
Israeli authorities believe that 20 hostages are still alive.
Many Gazans and foreign leaders fear a storming of Gaza City would cause significant casualties.
Israel says it will help civilians leave battle zones before any assault begins.
Israeli troops clashed on Wednesday with more than 15 Hamas militants who emerged from tunnel shafts and attacked with gunfire and anti-tank missiles near Khan Younis, south of Gaza City, severely wounding one soldier and lightly wounding two others, an Israeli military official said.
In a statement, Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades confirmed carrying out a raid on Israeli troops southeast of Khan Younis and engaging Israeli troops at point-blank range.
It said one fighter blew himself up among the soldiers, causing casualties, during an attack that lasted several hours.
Israel's military campaign has caused widespread devastation across the Gaza Strip, which before the war was home to about 2.3 million Palestinians.
Many buildings including homes, schools and mosques have been destroyed while the military has accused Hamas of operating from within civilian infrastructure, which Hamas denies.
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7NEWS
an hour ago
- 7NEWS
As Israel begins offensive on Gaza City, an exhausted military may face a manpower problem
As the earliest stages of a massive assault on Gaza City take shape, Israel is calling up tens of thousands of reservists to take part in the impending military operation. The takeover and occupation of the largest city in northern Gaza, which Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was one of the last Hamas strongholds, will require the military to bring in 60,000 more reserve troops and extend the service of another 20,000. Those plans have sparked growing condemnation both internationally and domestically over fears that the spiraling humanitarian and hunger crisis in Gaza will worsen — and that the lives of the remaining hostages will be further at risk from an expanded military operation. The Israeli military is already on the outskirts of Gaza City, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Wednesday (US time), in what he described as the first steps of the larger operation. Meanwhile, the Israeli military also said it has begun warning medical officials and international aid organisations in northern Gaza to plan for mass evacuation and displacement of the Palestinian population ahead of the planned Gaza City takeover. The forced evacuation of the healthcare system risks worsening an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis gripping the besieged territory. An Israeli military official told CNN that there will be 'several steps' before Israeli ground forces move into the city. It is partially encircled by Israeli troops, the official said, and some forces are already operating in the area of Zeitoun, west of the city centre. The IDF has begun preparing for the city's evacuation by sending in more tents for displaced Palestinians, but evacuation warnings have not yet been issued. When Israel's security cabinet first approved the takeover of Gaza City, Israeli officials estimated the plan could take five months or more. But on Wednesday, Netanyahu instructed the military to shorten the timeline. After nearly two years of war, and with no end in sight amid the next major operation, Israel's military chief warned of the added burden on the troops, many of whom have been called up multiple times to fight in Gaza. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir told the security cabinet earlier this month that the military faced attrition and burnout, but his concerns were dismissed as Netanyahu and his coalition partners pushed ahead with the new war plans. A new survey from the Agam Labs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggested that approximately 40 per cent of soldiers were slightly or significantly less motivated to serve, while a little more than 13 per cent were more motivated. The findings underscore the stark reality facing Israel's military, which could face limits to its manpower, especially as polls have repeatedly shown an overwhelming majority of the country supports an end to the war. Military leaders have called for the government to draft ultra-Orthodox men into service to supplement the beleaguered troops. But the vast majority of the ultra-Orthodox community has refused to serve, and at their demand, the government is pushing a broad exemption to mandatory military service. That this political debate is happening in the midst of war has only stoked the anger of many of those who serve. After the security cabinet approved the new operation, a small reservist organisation in Israel renewed calls for soldiers to decline military orders to serve. 'Your children do not know how to refuse on their own, because it is difficult. It is almost impossible,' Soldiers for Hostages said on social media earlier this month. Other reservist organisations have not publicly advocated for open refusal, which is more likely to be a private decision not to serve. The IDF does not publish the numbers or percentages of reservists who do not show up when called. 'A death sentence for the hostages' Avshalom Zohar Sal has served more than 300 days in Gaza on four different deployments. His last deployment ended only one month ago, and he is no longer willing to return to the front line, especially to an operation in Gaza City. 'I'm a little in shock that we're still talking about this war that was supposed to end a long time ago,' Zohar Sal told CNN. He says the doubts, that began creeping in a year ago, have only grown stronger and other members of his unit have the same worries as him. 'I think this decision is a death sentence for the hostages,' he said. 'The government talked and said all the time that we're talking about two missions for this war: to return the hostages and to defeat Hamas. Now it's like telling us, there's only one goal, which I believe is not achievable: to destroy Hamas. And even this won't destroy Hamas.' The Israeli military has a relatively small active-duty force, comprised mostly of conscripts. To continue fighting what has become the country's longest war ever, Israel has to rely on reservists. But it's not clear what percentage will answer a new round of calls to serve inside Gaza once again, especially after the military chief warned the operation could endanger the soldiers and the hostages. Defrin, the military spokesman, tried to address those concerns Wednesday, saying at a press conference that the IDF uses 'intelligence and many other capabilities' to protect the lives of the hostages. But all he could promise was that 'we'll do our best not to harm the hostages.' Reserve call-up notices are mandatory for many, but after sending numerous reservists into Gaza multiple times, the military has shown little willingness to punish or prosecute those who decline or otherwise avoid the call. Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who led the military during the 2006 war with Lebanon, predicted not all the reservists would show up for duty. 'I believe that some of them will stay home,' he told CNN at a protest by Air Force reservists earlier this month. 'The war is over a year ago,' said Halutz, describing the current plan as having 'no logic.' The retired general was careful not to call on Israelis to refuse to serve, but he encouraged reservists to 'act according to his conscience, to his set of rules.' Netanyahu promised more than a year ago that the worst of the fighting would be over by now. He told CBS in an interview in February of last year that once Israel invaded Rafah in southern Gaza, 'the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion, not months, weeks away from completion.' Now, 18 months later, Netanyahu says a new operation is the fastest way to end Israel's longest war. But that operation also targets a city that is home to more than a million people, many of them already displaced from other parts of Gaza. More than 22 months since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, over 2 million people in Gaza have been struggling with severe hunger, disease and displacement amid Israel's siege. Cases of child malnutrition have tripled across Gaza in 'less than six months,' according to the United Nations, as humanitarian workers urged Israel to lift severe restrictions on aid entering the besieged enclave. Nearly one in three children are malnourished in Gaza City, said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN's agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in what he called 'a man-made, preventable starvation'. Netanyahu's government have repeatedly denied that starvation is rife in the enclave.
Sky News AU
2 hours ago
- Sky News AU
General Jack Keane praises Netanyahu as an ‘effective wartime commander'
Former US Army vice chief of staff General Jack Keane has described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an 'effective wartime commander'. Israel's Defence Force has begun the first steps of its invasion of Gaza City, with troops already reaching the city's outskirts. 'Despite all the distractions, the political and international isolation, as well as condemnation, the growing and disturbing antisemitism that we see in free, democratic countries like the United States of America,' Gen Keane told Sky News host Andrew Bolt. 'Despite all of that, he is focused like a laser ... he wants to end this so that there is not going to be a repeat of October the 7th.'
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Netanyahu ignores pleas for calm and condemns Albanese, Australian protesters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has waded further into Australian domestic politics, claiming Australia risked being engulfed in a 'tsunami of antisemitism', despite direct pleas for him to calm down from Australia's top Jewish community leaders. Netanyahu said pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a ceasefire in Sydney or Melbourne should be 'counteracted' in a Sky News interview on Thursday. 'If you don't stop [attacks such as on the synagogue] when they're small, they get bigger and bigger and bigger, and ultimately, they consume your society,' he said. '[Protesters] should be defied by the leaders. And yet we see – not in America, I'm happy to say, because President Trump is standing strong – but in Europe, one country after another succumbing to them, condemning Israel that is fighting these monsters and is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties.' Netanyahu also has labelled the burning of a Melbourne synagogue last year as part of a 'tsunami of antisemitism'. Since Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1200 people, more than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the latest estimates from Gaza's health ministry. Netanyahu did not escalate his bitter personal attack on Albanese during the Sky interview beyond comments previewed earlier on Thursday in which he branded the Australian 'forever tarnished' by his plan to recognise a Palestinian state. Netanyahu was condemned this week by Jewish groups and conservative MPs for a scathing social media post on Tuesday night that called Albanese 'weak' and accused him of abandoning Israel and Australia's Jewish community.
