Israeli defence minister says Gaza City could be destroyed

Israel’s defence minister has warned that Gaza City could be destroyed unless Hamas accepts Israel’s terms, as the country prepares for an expanded offensive in the area.

A day after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would authorise the military to seize Gaza City, defence minister Israel Katz warned that the enclave’s largest city could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun” – areas reduced to rubble earlier in the war.

Mr Katz wrote on X: “The gates of hell will soon open on the heads of Hamas’ murderers and rapists in Gaza – until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war.”

He restated Israel’s ceasefire demands: the release of all hostages and Hamas’ complete disarmament.

Hamas issued a statement that called Mr Katz’s comments “a confession of committing a crime that amounts to ethnic cleansing”.

The militant group has said it would release captives in exchange for ending the war, but it rejects disarmament without the creation of a Palestinian state.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, expressed frustration with Hamas’s stance in long-running ceasefire talks, suggesting the militant group was less interested in making deals to release hostages with so few left alive in captivity.

“The situation has to end. It’s extortion, and it has to end,” Mr Trump told reporters on Friday.

“And we’ll see what happens. I actually think (the hostages are) safer in many ways if you went in and you really went in fast and you did it.”

Mr Netanyahu on Thursday said he had instructed officials “to begin immediate negotiations” to release hostages and end the war on acceptable terms, Israel’s first public response to the latest ceasefire proposal.

Hamas has said it would release captives in exchange for ending the war, but rejects disarmament without the creation of a Palestinian state.

The wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days.

Gaza City is Hamas’s military and governing stronghold, and is on top of what Israel believes is an extensive tunnel network. It is also sheltering hundreds of thousands of civilians and still houses some of the strip’s critical infrastructure and health facilities.

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 parties do not negotiate directly and similar announcements have been made in the past that did not lead to ceasefires.

The proposal outlines a phased deal involving hostage and prisoner exchanges and a pullback of Israeli troops, while talks continue on a longer-term ceasefire.

Israeli leaders have resisted such terms since abandoning a similar agreement earlier this year amid divisions within Mr Netanyahu’s coalition and strong opposition from his right.

Many Israelis fear an assault could doom the roughly 20 hostages still alive after Hamas-led militants’ October 7 attack in 2023. Aid groups and international leaders also warn it would worsen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.

The logistics of evacuating civilians are expected to be daunting. Many residents say repeated displacement is pointless since nowhere in Gaza is safe, while medical groups warn Israel’s calls to move patients south is unworkable, with no facilities to receive them.

But Mr Netanyahu has argued the offensive is the surest way to free captives and crush Hamas.

“These two things – defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages – go hand in hand,” Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday while touring a command centre near in southern Israel.

Since 251 people were taken hostage more than 22 months ago, ceasefire agreements and other deals have accounted for the vast majority of the 148 released, including the bodies of eight deceased hostages.

Israel has only managed to rescue eight hostages alive and retrieved the bodies of 49 others. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza, about 20 of whom Israel believes to be alive.

Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital said at least 17 Palestinians were killed on Friday as Israel escalates its activity in the area in the lead-up to its broader planned offensive.

An Israeli airstrike hit a school in Sheikh Radwan, a Gaza City neighbourhood where Palestinians shelter in makeshift tents in the schoolyard. It killed at least seven people, according to an eyewitness and hospital records.

Israel’s military said it wasn’t aware of a strike in the area but in a statement said troops were operating on the outskirts of Gaza City and in the Zeitoun neighbourhood.

The strike is part of Israel’s ongoing push in Gaza City, where the military says it is operating and witnesses have reported intense bombardment in the days since Israel approved its plans to take the city.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said that at least 62,192 Palestinians have been killed in the war.

Another two people have died from malnutrition-related causes, bringing the total number of such deaths to 271, including 112 children, the Health Ministry said.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. It does not say whether those killed by Israeli fire are civilians or combatants, but it says around half were women and children.

The UN and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own.

Hamas-led militants started the war when they attacked Israel on October 7 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking hostages.