Image source, Getty Images
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- Author, David Gritten and Gabriela Pomeroy
- Author's title, BBC News
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The Israel Army reported Wednesday that it began the “preliminary actions” of a land offensive that aims to take and occupy the entire city of Gaza.
A military spokesman said that, in addition to controlling the surroundings of the largest city in the Palestinian territory, their troops were already operating in the areas of Zeitoun and Javelia to lay the bases of the offensive.
The plan was approved on Tuesday by the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, and will be subject to the ratification of the security cabinet at the end of this week.
For the offensive, the Israel Defense Forces (FDI) have summoned about 60,000 reservists to appear at the beginning of September in order to free the active duty personnel for the operation.
It is expected that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the city of Gaza receive the order to evacuate and address the southern shelters of the Palestinian territory.
Allied countries of Israel have condemned the plan, including the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, who warned Wednesday that “can only lead to disaster for both peoples and runs the risk of plunge the entire region in a permanent war cycle.”
For its part, the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) said that a new displacement and intensification of hostilities “can worsen an already catastrophic situation” for the 2.1 million inhabitants of Gaza.
Image source, Getty Images
The Israeli plan
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to conquer the entire Gaza Strip after last month the negotiations with Hamas failed over a high fire and an agreement for the release of hostages.
In a televised press conference this Wednesday, the FDI spokesman, Brigade General Effie Defrin, said Hamas was “battered and wounded” after 22 months of war.
“We will deepen the damage to Hamas in the city of Gaza, bastion of government and military terror of the terrorist organization,” he added. “We will deepen the damage to the terrorist infrastructure above and below the ground and break the dependence of the population with respect to Hamas.”
However, Defrin said that IDFs would not take to start the operation.
“We have initiated preliminary actions and, at the moment, the FDI troops control the outskirts of the city of Gaza.”
Two brigades operated on the ground in the Zeitún neighborhood, where in recent days they had located an underground tunnel that contained weapons, and a third brigade operated in the javelia area, said Defrin.
In order to “minimize damage to the civilian population,” he continued, he would warn the civilian population of the city of Gaza that evacuated for their safety.
A spokesman for the Civil Defense Agency of Gaza, directed by Hamás, Mahmoud Bassal, told the AFP agency on Tuesday that the situation was “very dangerous and unbearable” in the neighborhoods of Zeitún and Sama de la Ciudad Gazatí.
The Palestine agency reported that Israeli attacks and bombings had caused the death of 25 people throughout the territory on Wednesday. Among them were three children and their parents, whose house in the Badr area, in the Shati refugee camp, west of the city of Gaza, was bombarded.
General Defrin also said that the IDF were doing everything possible so as not to damage the hostages that Hamas continues to retain in Gaza, 20 of which they think they are alive.
Their families have expressed their fear that those found in Gaza City can be in danger from a land offensive.
“The population of Gaza is completely exhausted”
The Red Cross also warned of a catastrophic situation for both Palestinian civilians and hostages if military activities intensify in Gaza.
“After months of relentless hostilities and repeated displacements, the population of Gaza is completely exhausted. What needs is no more pressure, but relief. No more fear, but an opportunity to breathe,” the organization said in a statement.
“They must have access to the essentials to live with dignity: food, medical and hygiene supplies, drinking water and safe refuge.”
“Any additional intensification of military operations will only aggravate suffering, separate more families and threaten an irreversible humanitarian crisis. The life of hostages could also be in danger,” he added.
He also asked for immediate fire and the quick step and without obstacles to humanitarian aid through Gaza.
Image source, Getty Images
Qatar and Egypt, who have served as mediators, are trying to obtain a high fire agreement and have presented a new proposal for a 60 -day truce and the release of approximately half of the hostages, something that Hamas said to have accepted on Monday.
Israel has not yet presented a formal response, but the Israeli authorities insisted on Tuesday that they would no longer accept a partial plan and demanded an integral one that contemplated the liberation of all hostages.
The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack led by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people died and another 251 were taken as hostages.
Since then, at least 62,000 people have died in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health of the Territory.
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