Jerusalem/Cairo — Israel aims to take on Hamas’ two remaining strongholds in its new Gaza offensive, which it hopes will conclude “fairly quickly” and end the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a rare press conference on Sunday.
Speaking to foreign journalists at a news conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel had no choice but to complete the job and defeat Hamas, given the group’s refusal to lay down its arms.
Hamas said it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state was established.
Netanyahu said Israel was working to increase aid distribution in a “humanitarian surge” being co-ordinated with Washington while its forces were preparing to move on Gaza City.
“The timeline that we set for the action is fairly quickly. We want, first of all, to enable safe zones to be established so the civilian population of Gaza City can move out,” he added.
“I don’t want to talk about exact timetables, but we are talking in terms of a fairly short timetable, because we want to bring the war to an end. This is how we bring the war to an end.”
Meanwhile, at an emergency UN Security Council meeting in New York on Sunday, ambassador James Kariuki, the UK’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, said the UK urged the Israeli government to reverse the decision to expand its military offensive in Gaza.
He said the plan will “only deepen the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza” and that the expanded offensive was the “path to more bloodshed”.
Shattered
Earlier, Israel’s far-right finance minister demanded Netanyahu scrap his plan to seize Gaza City in favour of a tougher one, while Italy said on Sunday the plan could result in a “Vietnam” for Israel’s army.
Netanyahu’s security cabinet, of which the minister, Bezalel Smotrich, is a member, approved the plan by majority on Friday to expand military operations in the shattered Palestinian enclave to try to defeat militant group Hamas.
The move drew a chorus of condemnation within Israel, where thousands of people protested in Tel Aviv on Saturday calling for an immediate ceasefire and release of hostages held by militant group Hamas, as well as abroad.
The UN Security Council was expected to meet later on Sunday to discuss the plan, with many countries expressing concern it could worsen already acute hunger among Palestinians.
Smotrich said he has lost faith in Netanyahu’s ability and desire to lead to a victory over Hamas. The new plan, he said in a video on X late on Saturday, was intended to get Hamas back to ceasefire negotiations.
The prime minister and the cabinet have decided to do “more of the same” he said, referring to the fact that Israeli troops have entered the city before and failed to defeat Hamas.
He and other far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition argue that the plan does not go far enough. Smotrich stopped short of delivering a clear ultimatum to Netanyahu.
Other far-right coalition allies of Netanyahu have also pushed for total military occupation of Gaza, the annexation of large swathes of the territory and the removal of much of its Palestinian population. National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has made similar calls, told Army Radio on Sunday that the plan to take over Gaza City was a good one, as long as it was a first step.
Protracted
The Israeli military has warned that expanding the offensive could endanger the lives of hostages Hamas is still holding in Gaza, believed to number about 20, and draw its troops into protracted and deadly guerrilla warfare.
Italy said Israel should heed its army’s warnings. “The invasion of Gaza risks turning into a Vietnam for Israeli soldiers,” foreign minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview with daily Il Messaggero. He reiterated calls for a UN mission led by Arab countries to “reunify the Palestinian state” and said Italy was ready to participate.
The Security Council is likely to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the prospect of its worsening if the Israeli plan goes ahead but there has so far been little appetite among Arab states to send their troops in.
Parachuted
Israel has already come under mounting pressure over widespread hunger and thirst in the enclave, prompting it to announce a series of new measures to ease aid distribution.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that the contents of nearly 1,900 aid trucks were distributed last week from the Gaza sides of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim border crossings. A spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on the reported figure but the UN has said Gaza needs far more aid to come in.
On Saturday, medics said that a 14-year-old boy was killed by an aid airdrop that fell on a tent encampment in central Gaza. A video, verified by Reuters, that went viral on social media, showed the parachuted aid box falling on the teenager who, among many other desperate Palestinians, was awaiting food.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said the new death raised the number of people killed during the airdrops to 23 since the war began, almost two years ago.
“We have repeatedly warned of the dangers of these inhumane methods and have consistently called for the safe and sufficient delivery of aid through land crossings, especially food, infant formula, medicines and medical supplies,” it said.
Five more people, including two children, died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said, taking the number of deaths from such causes to 217, including 100 children.
The war began on October 7 2023 when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages. Israeli authorities say 20 of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza are alive.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has since killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to health officials, and left much of the territory in ruins.
Gaza medics said Israeli fire killed at least six Palestinians on Sunday, four of them in an air strike in Khan Younis and two more people among crowds seeking aid in central Gaza. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the report. Reuters
