The plan to seize Gaza City
The plan to seize Gaza City was approved this month by the Israeli security cabinet, which Netanyahu chairs, even though many of Israel’s closest allies have urged the government to reconsider.
Netanyahu will hold a meeting on Thursday to approve operational plans, according to a source close to the prime minister.
He intends to launch the operation as soon as possible, which would include issuing warnings to residents to leave Gaza City, the source said.
Even as the military begins its preparations to launch the assault on Gaza City, Israeli officials have indicated that there is time for a ceasefire to be reached.
Netanyahu is under pressure from some far-right members of his coalition to reject a temporary ceasefire and instead to continue the war and pursue the annexation of the territory.
In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians have left their homes as Israeli forces have escalated shelling on the Sabra and Tuffah neighbourhoods. Some families have left for shelters along the coast, while others have moved to central and southern parts of the enclave, according to residents there.
“We are facing a bitter-bitter situation, to die at home or leave and die somewhere else, as long as this war continues, survival is uncertain,” said Rabah Abu Elias, 67, a father of seven.
“In the news, they speak about a possible truce, on the ground, we only hear explosions and see deaths. To leave Gaza City or not isn’t an easy decision to make,” he told Reuters by phone.
Israeli tanks have been edging closer to densely populated Gaza City over the past 10 days.
On Thursday, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on X that the military had started making what he said were initial warning calls to medical and international organisations operating in Gaza’s north, telling them that Gaza City residents should start to prepare to move out of the city and towards the south.
Adraee shared a recording of what he said was an Israeli officer telling a Gazan health ministry official that hospitals in southern Gaza should also prepare to receive patients from medical facilities in the north, who will be forced to evacuate.
A Gaza health ministry official confirmed the phone call had taken place. The official said health authorities had no intention to evacuate Gaza City hospitals, saying that would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Two more people have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the ministry said on Thursday. The new deaths raised the number of Palestinians who have died from such causes to 271, including 112 children, since the war began.
Israel disputes malnutrition and starvation figures posted by the Gaza health ministry.
Nidal al-Mughrabi and Lili Bayer, Reuters