Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the beginning of immediate negotiations to release the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza. Photo / Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered immediate negotiations aimed at freeing all the remaining hostages in Gaza, as Israeli troops hammered the territory’s largest city before a major planned offensive.
The call for renewed talks came a day after the Defence Ministry approved a plan authorising the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists to help capture Gaza City, home to Hamas’ final stronghold.
“I have come to approve the IDF’s [military’s] plans to take control of Gaza City and defeat Hamas,” the Prime Minister said in a video statement filmed during a visit to the Gaza division’s headquarters in Israel.
“At the same time, I have instructed to immediately begin negotiations for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war under conditions acceptable to Israel.”
“These two matters – defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages – go hand in hand,” Netanyahu said, without providing details about what the next stage of talks would entail.
Mediators have been waiting for days for an official Israeli response to their latest ceasefire proposal, which Hamas accepted earlier this week.
Palestinian sources have said the new deal involves staggered hostage releases, while Israel has insisted that any deal see all the captives freed at once.
Israel’s plans to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition, with the Red Cross joining the condemnation on Thursday, calling the moves “intolerable”.
Before the offensive, the Israeli military said the call-up of the reservists would begin in early September, adding the second phase of operation “Gideon’s Chariots” had begun.
Earlier, Gaza City residents described relentless bombardments overnight.
“The house shakes with us all night long - the sound of explosions, artillery, warplanes, ambulances, and cries for help is killing us,” Ahmad al-Shanti told AFP.
Another resident, Amal Abdel-Aal, said she watched the heavy strikes on the area, a week after being displaced from her home in Gaza City’s Al-Sabra neighbourhood.
“No one in Gaza has slept - not last night, not for a week. The artillery and air strikes in the east never stop. The sky flashes all night long,” she added.
A group of AFP journalists near Israel’s border with Gaza witnessed an air strike by a fighter jet on the northern outskirts of Gaza City on Thursday afternoon, with a massive explosion followed by a large plume of smoke rising into the sky.
Several sporadic explosions were heard afterward but it was not possible to determine their origin.
Strikes increased in pace later in the afternoon with several large explosions heard near the border.
“We are advancing with the efforts toward operations in Gaza City,” military chief Eyal Zamir told troops on Thursday.
“We already have troops operating on the outskirts of the city, and more forces will join them later on.”
The UN humanitarian agency has warned that the Israeli plan to expand military operations in Gaza City would have “a horrific humanitarian impact” on an already exhausted population.
The Israeli military said this week it had also begun informing medical personnel and aid groups in northern Gaza to start making evacuation plans and transferring their equipment to the south.
The Gaza health ministry, however, rejected that call on Thursday, saying it would not agree to “any step that would undermine what remains of the health system after the systematic destruction carried out by the occupation authorities”.
Israel and Hamas have held indirect negotiations throughout the nearly two-year conflict, paving the way for a pair of short ceasefires during which Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Sources from Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad told AFP that the latest ceasefire proposal calls for the release of 10 hostages and 18 bodies from Gaza. The remaining hostages would be released in a second phase alongside talks for a wider settlement.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 48 people were killed on Thursday by Israeli attacks in various areas across the Palestinian territory, including several casualties in an air strike in Gaza City.
Hamas’ October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 62,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
– Agence France-Presse