Despite global rage over humanitarian blockades and calls to reach a lasting ceasefire, movements arise.
Israeli forces will invoke tens of thousands of reserves to expand the country’s attack on the besieged Gaza Strip, Army Secretary Eir Zamir said.
He made the announcement on Sunday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue the war in Gaza, seeking a contract to end the war that killed more than 52,000 Palestinians despite calls from within Israel.
“This week we are sending tens of thousands of draft orders to reserve personnel in order to strengthen and expand action in Gaza. [held captive in Gaza] Defeating Hamas,” Zamir said, adding that Israeli forces “will operate in additional areas and destroy everything.” [Hamas’s] “Ground and underground infrastructure.”
The military chief announced during a visit to Atlit Naval Base on Israel’s northern Mediterranean coast.
The announcement began in October 2023 and came before the Netanyahu Security Cabinet Meeting to discuss the growing war in Gaza, which destroyed the Palestinian enclave.
Growing moves within Israel are calling for an end to the war, and more and more reserves are ignoring the call.
Two government officials told Reuters that the cabinet will also discuss reopening aid to Gaza as humanitarian groups warn of an increase in territorial hunger since Israel imposed a complete lockdown on March 2.
Israel continues to face widespread global outrage over the acts of war in Gaza, which shattered the territorial infrastructure and its health care system and expelled most of its 2.3 million residents at least once since the war began.
In an interview with Israeli Army Radio, far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben Gwil said he wants to see a “strong” expansion of the war, but he has not given details on what the new plan will entail.
“We need to increase our strength and continue until we achieve a perfect victory. We must win a perfect victory,” he said. He demanded that Israel bomb Gaza’s “food and electricity supply.”
Major humanitarian groups, including the Red Cross, have warned that Gaza’s humanitarian response is on the brink of “complete collapse” and that Palestinians face “daily struggles to survive” amidst artillery fire and crippled blockades.
The UN agency says a fleet of trucks carrying aid are stacked at the border and not placed in enclaves where hunger is looming.
Israeli officials have argued that the expanded military attack will pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 prisoners of war, but critics have argued that it puts their lives even more in danger. Israel ended a fragile ceasefire where on March 18, when Palestinian prisoners were traded for Israeli prisoners.
Reserve call-up is heading out as Netanyahu has promised to deal with Yemeni Houtis.
Netanyahu said the response would happen “at once and at a place we have chosen.”
Houthis said their fighters attacked “in support of the oppressed Palestinians” and attacked in order to counter Israeli “genocide crimes” in Gaza.
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