{"id":12500,"date":"2025-08-20T22:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T22:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12500\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T22:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T22:28:10","slug":"israel-pushes-ahead-with-plans-for-takeover-of-gaza-city-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/12500\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel pushes ahead with plans for takeover of Gaza City \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel<\/a> is pushing ahead with plans for a military takeover of Gaza<\/a> City despite Hamas<\/a> this week accepting a proposal for a 60-day ceasefire to end the 22-month war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After defence minister Israel Katz approved the plans drawn up by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for the attack on Gaza City, call-up orders were sent to 60,000 reservists. <\/p>\n

More will be drafted in the coming months, bringing a total of up to 130,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the operation is completed, Gaza will change its face and will no longer look as it did in the past,\u201d Mr Katz said.<\/p>\n

He said the attack on the last significant bastion of Hamas control in Gaza would take \u201cmonths\u201d. <\/p>\n

The plan to assault Gaza City has been met with international criticism. More than 800,000 residents will be forced from their homes during the operation which will be carried out by six IDF divisions.<\/p>\n

Most Gazans have been displaced multiple times and forced into densely packed areas along the Mediterranean coast, including in Gaza City.<\/p>\n

Israel said it was in contact with international organisations to establish more field hospitals in southern Gaza. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Israel approves settlement plan to \u2018erase\u2019 idea of Palestinian stateOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"TOPSHOTTOPSHOT – Palestinians watch as a rocket fired by an Israeli war plane targets a building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on August 20, 2025. Israel’s defence minister approved a plan on August 20, for the conquest of Gaza City and authorised the call-up of around 60,000 reservists, piling pressure on Hamas as mediators push for a ceasefire. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB \/ AFP) (Photo by BASHAR TALEB\/AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

The attack is expected to begin next month once the expulsion of civilians is complete and the required number of soldiers are in place, but Israeli forces have already begun operating in and around Gaza City.<\/p>\n

Attacks have taken place in the city\u2019s Zeitoun neighbourhood and in Jabalia, north of Gaza City, in recent days and residents of Jabalia have already been told to leave their homes.<\/p>\n

The International Red Cross Committee warned against Israel\u2019s escalation on Wednesday, saying the transfer of civilians from Gaza City to the territory\u2019s south would risk \u201cworsening an already catastrophic situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe civilian population in Gaza is living in abhorrent conditions,\u201d the committee said. \u201cWith more than 80 per cent of Gaza already impacted by evacuation orders, it is unimaginable that civilians could be compelled to move to an even smaller area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel is expected to formally respond before the weekend to the Gaza ceasefire proposal drawn up by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, which is almost identical to the draft presented by US mediator Steve Witkoff, earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The majority of Israelis support a ceasefire that would bring about the return of the remaining 50 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0UN Security Council urged to renew Unifil\u2019s mandate in south LebanonOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu<\/a> has set a number of conditions for a deal, including the release of all the hostages in a single exchange, the disarming of Hamas and guarantees that both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority will not be part of post-war Gaza.<\/p>\n

The two far-right parties in Mr Netanyahu\u2019s coalition oppose stopping the war, arguing that Israel must \u201cdestroy\u201d Hamas militarily. <\/p>\n

More than 62,000 have been killed in Gaza during the 22-month war according to the Hamas-run Gazan health ministry. Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 250 kidnapped and taken to Gaza in the Hamas-led October 7th, 2023 attack on southern Israel. \u2013 Additional reporting: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel is pushing ahead with plans for a military takeover of Gaza City despite Hamas this week accepting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,3761,6,71,3857,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-12500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-gaza-strip","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}