The Israeli military has announced plans to call up 60,000 reservists and lengthen the service of an additional 20,000 reservists as it prepares to seize Gaza City.
The move comes as mediators pursue efforts to secure a ceasefire in the 22-month war.
The military said Defence Minister Israel Katz approved plans to begin operations in some of Gaza’s most densely populated areas, including neighbourhoods where forces had not previously operated.
An Israeli military official described the new phase of combat as “a gradual precise and targeted operation in and around Gaza City.”
The official said the military had already begun operating in the neighbourhoods of Zeitoun and Jabalia as part of the initial stages.
Newsman Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from central Gaza, said residents are bracing for the worst as Israel pursues its plan to seize Gaza’s largest city, in an operation that could displace hundreds of thousands of people to concentration zones in the south of the territory.
Abu Azzoum described the dire situation on the ground, saying, “Last night was completely sleepless as Israeli drones and warplanes filled the skies, attacking and destroying homes and makeshift camps.”
He also recounted a heart-wrenching story of a father in al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated so-called safe zone in southern Gaza, who lost his children in an overnight strike.
“He told us his children were sleeping peacefully when the Israeli missile tore through the tent and ripped their bodies apart.”
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is expected to worsen, with most residents displaced multiple times, neighbourhoods lying in ruins, and starvation deaths continuing to rise amid the threat of widescale famine.
At least 35 Palestinians, including 10 people seeking aid, were killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday, according to medical sources.
Meanwhile, mediation efforts led by Qatar and Egypt, with backing from the United States, are ongoing.
The latest framework calls for a 60-day truce, a staggered exchange of captives and Palestinian prisoners, and expanded aid access. Qatar said the proposal was “almost identical” to a version Israel had previously accepted, while Egypt stressed that “the ball is now in its (Israel’s) court.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not publicly commented on the proposal.
Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said his movement “opened the door wide to the possibility of reaching an agreement, but the question remains whether Netanyahu will once again close it, as he has done in the past.”
The truce push comes amid mounting international criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war and growing domestic pressure on Netanyahu.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said at least 62,064 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza started on October 7, 2023, most of them civilians.
The United Nations regards the ministry’s figures as credible.
As the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, the international community remains watchful, urging a peaceful resolution to the conflict.