The Israeli army will mobilize thousands of reservists in the coming days, on an expansion of the offensive in Gaza, while negotiations to ensure a ceasefire fail.
The call occurs after reports that the Head of Staff of the Defense Forces of Israel, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, presented on Friday a plan to and the Minister of Defense Israel Katz.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan 11 reported that Zamir’s plan included the order of removal of Palestinian civilians from North and Center of Gaza before the expansion of operations in these areas, reflecting tactics used earlier this year in Rafah, southern Enclave.
Speaking on Sunday, Zamir said: “This week we are issuing thousands of orders to our reservists to intensify and expand our operation in Gaza. We are increasing the pressure for our people to return and defeat Hamas.”
The Israeli army chief added that the military would “operate in additional areas and destroy all the infrastructures above and below the ground.”
The news generated concern among the families of the 59 Israeli hostages still kept by Hamas in Gaza. Most victims were kidnapped during Hamas’s deadly attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered 18 months of more than 50,000 people in Gaza.
In what he described as an “urgent and sincere” appeal, the headquarters of the Hostors and Missing Families warned on Saturday that “any climbing in the fighting will put the hostages – both the living and the dead – in immediate danger.”
“The vast majority of the Israeli public sees the return of hostages as the largest moral priority of the nation,” he added.
Negotiations to ensure the release of the remaining hostages have been paralyzed for weeks.
The conversations mediated by Egypt and the Qatar failed repeatedly. Hamas requires a permanent ceasefire and the total removal of Israel from Gaza, while Israel accuses Hamas of rejecting “reasonable offers.”
The hope of a diplomatic resolution seemed to decrease further over the weekend, when Netanyahu accused Qatar mediators of “playing on both sides” in the negotiations and asked the state of the Gulf to “decide to be on the side of civilization or be on the side of Hamas barbarism”, claiming that Israel is fighting “a fair war with fair means” in Gaza.
It is unclear what motivated Netanyahu’s statement, but the statement occurs after reports in the Israeli media that Qatar pressured Hamas to reject an Egyptian proposal to ceasefire agreement.
Qatar rejected the claim on Sunday, classifying it as a distortion of its diplomatic efforts and accusing Israel of using humanitarian aid as a “political coercion tool”, while humanitarian aid to Palestinian enclave enters its third month. “Is this really the model of ‘civilization’ being promoted?” Wrote the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Majed Al Ansari, in an X publication.
“A legitimate question must be raised: the release of no less than 138 hostages has been achieved through so -called ‘just’ military operations or the same mediation that is now being unfairly criticized and undermined?” He added.
On Thursday, Netanyahu explicitly stated for the first time that defeating Israel’s enemies was more important than ensuring the release of the remaining hostages, in statements that caused negative reactions from representatives of their families. Previously, he had described to defeat Hamas and ensure the release of hostages as the main objectives of the Israeli War in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the prime minister’s office announced on Saturday that he was rescheduled by Netanyahu’s visit to Azerbaijan from May 7 to 11 “to a later date.”
Quoting an “intense diplomatic and security agenda,” he said the change occurred after “”.
