The International Red Cross and UN have warned of an impending catastrophe in the Gaza Strip if Israel launches an offensive to take over Gaza City, as the Israeli military told medical and aid groups in the Palestinian territory to prepare for imminent forced displacement.
At the same time a concerted campaign of international opposition to Israel’s defiance of ceasefire calls and its approval of a huge new illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank gathered pace, with the UK summoning Israel’s ambassador and joining 20 other countries in condemning the settlement plan as a “violation of international law”.
The Gaza health ministry on Thursday rejected the Israeli military’s call to displace personnel in the north before a military offensive to seize the area. It said to do so would “deprive more than 1 million people of their right to medical treatment and expose the lives of residents, patients and the wounded to imminent danger”.
On Thursday evening, Benjamin Netanayhu announced during a visit to Israeli soldiers in the Gaza division that he had approved plans for the takeover of Gaza City and ordered officials to begin immediate negotiations over the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
“We are in the decision-making stage,” the prime minister said. “I have come to the Gaza division today to approve the plans that the IDF presented to me … for the takeover of Gaza City and the defeat of Hamas ... At the same time, I have instructed to begin immediate negotiations on the release of all our hostages and the end of the war on terms acceptable to Israel. These two things – the defeat of Hamas and the release of all our hostages – go hand in hand.”
Netanyahu, who is wanted by the international criminal court over allegations of responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity, earlier told Sky News Australia that Israel intended to take over the whole of the Gaza Strip regardless of whether there was a ceasefire deal agreed with Hamas. The families of Israeli hostages have said such an operation would be a “death sentence” for their relatives.
In the interview, apparently conducted earlier this week, he was asked whether Israel would take over all of Gaza, even if Hamas agreed to a ceasefire deal. “We’re going to do that anyway,” said Netanyahu. “There was never a question that we’re not going to leave Hamas there.”
Calling for an immediate ceasefire, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned of the “massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza would inevitably cause”.
Christian Cardon, the chief spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said: “The intensification of hostilities in Gaza means more killing, more displacement, more destruction and more panic.
“Gaza is a closed space from which nobody can escape … and where access to healthcare, food and safe water is dwindling. Meanwhile, the security of humanitarians is getting worse by the hour. This is intolerable.”
Aid organisations say Israel has made negligible efforts to significantly increase humanitarian assistance to the levels needed by the population in Gaza, prompting a warning from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, earlier this week of the danger of a “true disaster”.
Opposition to a new military operation – repeatedly “approved” by Israeli figures in recent days – is growing inside Israel and internationally.
More protests are expected to follow a large one held on Sunday, and the families of Israeli hostages held a press conference on Thursday to call for Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal – already accepted by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – which would result in half of the 20 surviving hostages being released.
“We’re a step away from a total torpedoing” of a deal, said Lishay Miran Lavi, whose husband, Omri, is thought to still be alive in captivity. “There is an agreement on the table that could save the lives of hostages and return the dead for proper burial.
“Hamas has agreed, but the prime minister’s office is working to sabotage it … You cannot conduct a 22-month war whose sole purpose is to preserve political power.”
Representatives from hostages’ families referred sceptically to Netanyahu’s repeated promises that Israel was close to victory.
Israel’s increasing defiance of international opinion has pushed it closer to the status of a pariah state, both for the destruction and mass starvation it has visited on Gaza, and for its approval on Wednesday of the illegal settlement aimed at destroying any possibility of a future Palestinian state. The approval was described by the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, as a “flagrant breach” of international law.
Netanyahu appears to have bent to the demands of far-right minority parties in his fragile coalition who have called for the conquest of Gaza and threatened to collapse the government in the event of a ceasefire deal.
The Israeli military bombarded Gaza City overnight, a day after the call-up of 60,000 reservists was announced. A military official said most reservists would not serve in combat, giving strength to the argument that at least some of Israel’s recent statements amount to posturing against the background of complex ceasefire talks.
In one attack, Israel struck an area of Deir al-Balah as a nearby street was crowded with civilians.
Calling up the reservists is likely to take weeks, giving mediators time to try to bridge gaps over the ceasefire proposal, to which the Israeli government has yet to officially respond.
The proposal, which aligns with an outline drawn up by Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, calls for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages being held by Hamas militants and of 18 bodies. In turn, Israel would release about 200 long-serving Palestinian prisoners.
Israel had signalled weeks ago that it accepted that outline for a deal, with the distance between Hamas and Israel’s negotiators only closing since.
