Hamas says Israel's plan to conquer Gaza shows ‘blatant disregard' for peace
'Today's announcement by the terrorist occupation army of the start of an operation against Gaza City and its nearly one million residents and displaced persons... demonstrates... a blatant disregard for the efforts made by the mediators,' it said in a statement.
Israel's defense minister on Wednesday approved a military plan for the conquest of Gaza City, authorizing the call-up of about 60,000 reservists, piling pressure on Hamas as mediators push for a ceasefire.
Defense Minister Israel Katz's order to send more troops into Gaza City, confirmed to AFP by a spokesman, came as an Israeli official said the government stood firm on its call for the release of all hostages in any agreement.
The framework that Hamas had approved proposes an initial 60-day truce, a staggered hostage release, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners and provisions allowing for the entry of aid into Gaza.
On the ground in Gaza City on Wednesday, Mustafa Qazzaat, head of the emergency committee in the Gaza municipality, described the situation as 'catastrophic,' with 'large numbers' fleeing eastern neighborhoods.
One resident, Anis Daloul, 64, said the Israeli military had 'destroyed most of the buildings in Zeitoun and displaced thousands of people.'
Israel's security cabinet chaired by Netanyahu approved the plan to conquer Gaza City in early August, sparking fears it would worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
According to Israeli media reports, Netanyahu has not yet called a security cabinet meeting to discuss any response to the latest truce proposal.
His office said in a statement Wednesday that the prime minister had 'directed that the timetables for seizing control of the last terrorist strongholds and the defeat of Hamas be shortened,' without indicating a specific timeframe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
30 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Netanyahu says Israel will begin Gaza ceasefire negotiations
In this episode of W News Extra, presented by Leigh-Ann Gerrans, we report on a range of stories, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing that he has ordered the start of immediate ceasefire talks to end the Gaza war and secure the release of all hostages.
Arab News
30 minutes ago
- Arab News
Gaza civilian death toll could be as high as 83%: Israeli data
LONDON: As many as 83 percent of Palestinian casualties in Gaza could be civilians, classified Israeli data suggests. A joint investigation by The Guardian, Hebrew-language Local Call and the Israeli-Palestinian +972 Magazine found that Israeli officials had been able to name 8,900 people killed or 'probably dead' in Gaza as members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as of May this year. At the time, the total death toll from the war was believed to be at least 53,000 people according to local authorities, meaning that just 17 percent of those identified were combatants. The database used to assess combatant casualty figures is based on documents seized by the Israeli military in Gaza. In total, 47,653 Palestinians are identified as being members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, meaning that a little under 40,000 are believed to be still alive The Israeli military also believes Gaza's health authorities' data on casualties to be reliable, Local Call reported, though these figures are likely to be an underestimate as thousands of people remain buried under rubble, and only bodies positively identified are counted. Therese Pettersson of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program told The Guardian: 'That proportion of civilians among those killed would be unusually high, particularly as it has been going on for such a long time. 'If you single out a particular city or battle in another conflict, you could find similar rates, but very rarely overall.' She added that since 1989, UCDP had only identified the siege of Srebrenica, the Rwandan genocide and the 2022 siege of Mariupol as conflicts that saw civilian casualties outnumber combatants. Previously, Israeli politicians have cited a far more balanced casualty rate, with some suggesting it could even be equal between combatants and civilians. Others have suggested in the past that 20,000 people killed in Gaza were militants. This could be on account of collating members of the enclave's civilian infrastructure or people with loose ties to fighters — such as police and politicians — with membership of militant groups, but it is also believed that civilians without ties to Islamic Jihad or Hamas are included in those tallies. One source who spent time with the Israeli military in Gaza told The Guardian that 'people are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death,' adding: 'If I had listened to the brigade, I would have come to the conclusion that we had killed 200 percent of Hamas operatives in the area.' Retired Gen. Itzhak Brik, a former commander of Israel's military colleges, told The Guardian that he had been told by former colleagues the numbers were inflated. 'There is absolutely no connection between the numbers that are announced and what is actually happening,' he said. 'It is just one big bluff.' Palestinian analyst Muhammad Shehada told the newspaper that by last December, the number of dead Hamas and Islamic Jihad members from their own data was around 6,500. 'Israel expands the boundaries so they can define every single person in Gaza as Hamas,' he said. 'All of it is killing in the moment for tactical purposes that have nothing to do with extinguishing a threat.' Moreover, the number of dead, and the disparity between civilian and combatant deaths, may have increased since May, with hunger now believed to be widespread due to a lack of food in Gaza, and an increase in the number of civilian deaths at aid distribution sites in the enclave. The impending Israeli ground offensive in the north of Gaza will likely further widen this gap. So far, in excess of 62,000 people are believed to have been killed in the enclave. Mary Kaldor, professor of global governance at the London School of Economics, said the nature of the Gaza conflict is also causing a disproportionate number of civilian casualties. 'In Gaza we are talking about a campaign of targeted assassinations, really, rather than battles, and they are carried out with no concern for civilians,' she added. Comparing Gaza to recent conflicts in Syria, Yemen and Sudan, she said: 'These are wars where the armed groups tend to avoid battle. They don't want to fight each other, they want to control territory and they do that by killing civilians. 'Maybe that is the same with Israel, and this is a model of war (in Gaza) that is about dominating a population and controlling land. Maybe the objective always was forced displacement.' Neta Crawford, professor of international relations at Oxford University, said tactics used by Israel mark a 'worrisome' departure from previously established norms to protect civilians. 'They say they're using the same kinds of procedures for civilian casualty estimation and mitigation as states like the United States. But if you look at these casualty rates, and their practices with the bombing and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, it is clear that they are not,' she said. In a statement to The Guardian, the Israeli military said the figures published in the investigation 'are incorrect.'
Arab News
30 minutes ago
- Arab News
Lebanese troops collect first weapons surrendered in Palestinian camps
BEIRUT: Lebanese troops entered the Burj Al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut's southern suburbs late on Thursday and began collecting the first weapons surrendered as part of a government move to disarm Palestinian factions. The weapons handover is part of a broader disarmament push that follows a Lebanese government decision, announced on Aug. 5, to limit possession of arms exclusively to the state. It also follows an earlier meeting between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, held on May 21 in Beirut. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the start of the process, saying that the initial handover of Palestinian weapons to the Lebanese Army marked an important step. Additional batches will be transferred in coming weeks from Burj Al-Barajneh and other camps, he added. Ramez Dimashqieh, head of the government's Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, described the operation as 'a handover based on lists prepared in advance by the Lebanese Army in coordination with the Palestinian forces inside the camp.' He told Arab News: 'The Lebanese Army has prepared lists of the weapons present in the camp, specifically heavy weapons, and the operation will take place in phases and will not be completed in one day.' Dimashqieh said that 'the weapons being handed over (to the military) are not new weapons brought into the camps, but have been present in the camp for a long time.' At the time of the weapons handover, Hezbollah activists circulated claims on social media that the arms surrendered in Burj Al-Barajneh camp 'belonged to a defector from the Fatah movement and had been brought into the camp two days earlier.' The Lebanese Army's Engineering Regiment examined the weapons before removing them. Ahead of the transfer, army personnel told journalists gathered at the camp entrance to leave the area. Dimashqieh said that the weapons will be held by the Lebanese Army, with the crackdown eventually extending to other camps. Lebanon hosts 12 Palestinian refugee camps, spread across Beirut and its southern suburbs, the Bekaa, the north, and the south. The largest is Ain Al-Hilweh, located in the Sidon region. In the past, the Lebanese Army has avoided entering the Palestinian camps, instead dealing mainly with committees set up by Palestinian leaders. A Palestinian official described 'diverging views' among Palestinian forces in the camps regarding the surrender of weapons, with factions allied with Hezbollah opposing the handover. Ghassan Ayoub, a member of the leadership of the Palestinian People's Party in Lebanon, told Arab News: 'This does not mean that all Palestinian factions are not interested in reaching an understanding with the Lebanese state. There is no barter process, but the Palestinians are committed to obtaining human rights.' Thomas Barrack, US envoy to Lebanon and Syria, praised the Palestinian weapons handover on Thursday night, describing it as a 'bold measure and a historic step toward unity and stability.' The previous night, Lebanese Army Intelligence, in a targeted security operation inside the Phoenicia Intercontinental Hotel in Beirut, arrested Shadi Mahmoud Mustafa Al-Far, a former Fatah official in the Burj Al-Barajneh camp. While it remains unclear if the operation was linked to the weapons surrender on Thursday, a Palestinian security source said Al-Far had been dismissed from Fatah more than two months ago for violating the movement's organizational decisions. A Lebanese security source confirmed that Al-Far is 'pursued by several Lebanese judicial warrants.' Another Palestinian political source, who declined to be named, described the weapons handover in Burj Al-Barajneh camp as a 'step in the right direction.' The source added: 'There is a need to dismantle networks that have emerged over 50 years, intersecting arms and drug trafficking, and implicated in major corruption operations.' The weapons handover in the camp comes two days after a delegation from the Palestinian Liaison Committee with the Lebanese side, including Yasser Abbas, held talks decision-makers in Lebanon, including political officials and officers in the Lebanese Army Command, the Palestinian source said. 'The delegation's most prominent meeting was with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, who is negotiating on behalf of the party with the US side regarding the implementation of the ceasefire agreement,' the source said.
