The Israel Defense Forces told residents of two neighborhoods in Gaza on Wednesday to evacuate ahead of a cabinet discussion said to revolve around the possibility of a major escalation in the war with Hamas.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the head of the Arab media division of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, warned the residents of Al Nasser and Zeitoun to evacuate in two separate social-media posts on X.
“The IDF is continuing its ground maneuvers and deploying a heavy force in your area to expand the scope of the fighting,” Adraee wrote in the statement about Al Nasser. No “tactical, temporary or local ceasefire is in place for humanitarian purposes” in the area, he added. “For your safety, evacuate the area immediately and head west,” he wrote, adding that this did not apply to Nasser Hospital.
On Thursday, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the IDF chief of staff, is scheduled to appear before the Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs, or State Security Cabinet, for a meeting on how the Israeli military should proceed in Gaza.
In recent days, Israeli media reported on plans for a comprehensive seizure of the entire coastal enclave in a departure from the current modus operandi, labeled the “raids doctrine.” Since war with Hamas broke out as a result of the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the IDF has launched a series of limited-scale actions to secure or encircle temporarily key areas of the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s government is under pressure to change how the military is operating in Gaza—both from its right-wing voter base, where many demand more vigorous action against Hamas, and from the left-wing opposition parties, which are calling to end the war.
Netanyahu has vowed to dismantle Hamas militarily and retrieve the remaining 50 hostages, both living and dead, in the ongoing campaign.
‘Get the hostages back’
Ditsa Or, whose 32-year-old son, Avinatan Or, is believed to be held in Gaza along with 20 other living hostages held by Hamas there, said at a right-wing conference in Tel Aviv last week that Israel “is on the fence, fighting a war for almost two years now that should have ended long ago. We’re not winning the war, and we’re not surrendering,” she said.
“But if we’re not fighting, we’d better surrender, and at least get the hostages back,” she said.
She added that Israel should continue to fight and defeat Hamas.
The humanitarian situation is widely seen as limiting IDF actions. Reports of starvation in the Gaza Strip have featured prominently in international media in recent weeks, leading to allegations, which Israel has denied, that it is deliberately withholding aid from civilians.
Netanyahu said Israel is trying to supply the population of Gaza with food and other necessities, despite Hamas’s efforts to steal it.
Since July 26, some 900 humanitarian aid packages with a combined weight of 107 tons were airdropped into Gaza by nine countries, including Israel, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said on Wednesday.
Amid Segal, chief political analyst of Israel’s Channel 12 News, reported on Wednesday that Israel and the United States were working to boost humanitarian aid ahead of an Israeli comprehensive seizure of the Strip.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an aid group supported by Israel and the United States that began operating in Gaza in February, distributed 1.16 million meals on Wednesday from two of its four distribution points, it said.
GHF was set up to deny Hamas control of aid that had previously been distributed by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), an agency Israel has said has been deeply penetrated and compromised by Hamas. JNS
{Matzav.com Israel}
