Netanyahu says he will give approval for Gaza City takeover despite protests

Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will give final approval for a takeover of Gaza City while also restarting negotiations with Hamas aimed at returning all of Israel’s remaining hostages and ending the war on Israel’s terms.

The wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days after the Israeli Prime Minister grants final approval at a meeting with senior security officials.

Hamas said earlier this week that it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators which, if accepted by Israel, could forestall the offensive.

The widening of the 22-month military offensive against Hamas appears to be proceeding despite protests in Israel and the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli military has been calling medical officials and international organisations in the northern Gaza Strip to encourage them to evacuate to the south ahead of the expanded operation. The military plans to call up 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more.

Israeli strikes killed at least 36 Palestinians across Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals. A renewed offensive could bring even more casualties and displacement to the territory, where the war has already killed tens of thousands and where experts have warned of imminent famine.

Many Israelis fear it could also doom the remaining 20 or so living hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the October 7 2023 attack that ignited the war.

During a visit to the military’s Gaza command in southern Israel, Mr Netanyahu said he would approve the army’s plans to retake Gaza City, and had instructed officials “to begin immediate negotiations on the release of all our hostages and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel”.

“These two things — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages — go hand in hand,” he said.

It appeared to mark Israel’s first public response to the latest ceasefire proposal drawn up by Egypt and Qatar, which Egyptian and Hamas officials say is almost identical to an earlier one that Israel accepted before the talks stalled last month.

The proposal would include the release of some of the hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a pullback of Israeli forces and negotiations over a more lasting ceasefire.

Israeli troops, meanwhile, have already begun limited operations in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood and the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, where they have carried out several previous major operations over the course of the war, only to see militants later regroup.

The military says it plans to operate in areas where ground troops have not yet entered and where it says Hamas still has military and governing capabilities.

There has been little sign of Palestinians fleeing en masse, as they did when Israel carried out an earlier offensive in Gaza City in the opening weeks of the war. The military says it controls around 75% of Gaza and residents say nowhere in the territory feels safe.

Hundreds gathered in Gaza City on Thursday for a rare protest against the war and Israel’s plans to support the mass relocation of Palestinians to other countries.

Unlike in previous protests, there were no expressions of opposition to Hamas.

In Israel, families of some of the 50 hostages still being held in Gaza gathered in Tel Aviv to condemn the expanded operation. Israel believes around 20 hostages are still alive.

“Forty-two hostages were kidnapped alive and murdered in captivity due to military pressure and delay in signing a deal,” said Dalia Cusnir, whose brother-in-law Eitan Horn is still being held captive. Mr Horn’s brother Iair was released during a ceasefire earlier this year.

“Enough to sacrifice the hostages. Enough to sacrifice the soldiers, both regular and reservists. Enough to sacrifice the evacuees. Enough to sacrifice the younger generation in the country,” said Bar Goddard, daughter of Meni Goddard, whose body is being held by Hamas.

Additional protests are planned for Thursday night in Tel Aviv.

Plans for widening the offensive have sparked international outrage, with many of Israel’s closest western allies — but not the US — calling on it to end the war.

“I must reiterate that it is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza, and the unconditional release of all hostages to avoid the massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would inevitably cause,” United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said.

At least 36 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 14 who were seeking humanitarian aid, according to local hospitals.

The Israeli military said it killed several armed militants in the Morag Corridor, a military zone where people seeking aid have repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, according to witnesses and health officials.

Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza had earlier reported that six people were killed in that area while seeking aid on Thursday. It was not possible to reconcile the two accounts.

The Media Freedom Coalition, which promotes press freedoms worldwide, called for Israel to allow independent, foreign news organisations access to Gaza. Aside from rare guided tours, Israel has barred international media from the war which has killed at least 184 Palestinian journalists and media workers.

“Journalists and media workers play an essential role in putting the spotlight on the devastating reality of war,” said a statement signed by 27 of the coalition’s member countries.

Witnesses, health officials and the UN human rights office say Israeli forces have killed hundreds of people since May as they headed towards sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli-backed American contractor, and in the chaos surrounding UN aid convoys, which are frequently attacked by looters and overrun by crowds.

The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces. The GHF says there has been almost no violence at the sites, and that its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding.

Israeli air strikes also destroyed a tent camp in Deir al-Balah, the only city in Gaza that has been relatively unscathed in the war and where many have sought refuge. Residents said the military warned them to flee shortly before the strikes set the camp ablaze, and there were no reports of casualties.

Families, many with children, could later be seen sifting through the ashes for the belongings they had managed to take with them during earlier evacuations.

Mohammad Kahlout, who had been displaced from northern Gaza, said they were given just five minutes to gather what they could and evacuate. “We are civilians, not terrorists. What did we do, and what did our children do, to be displaced again?”