(LONDON) — Israel will send call-ups to 50,000 to 60,000 reservists as part of its plans to invade and occupy Gaza City, according to an Israeli military official.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz approved on Wednesday the Israel Defense Forces’ military plan, codenamed “Gideon’s Chariots II,” to invade and occupy the city, according to the official.
The call-ups will begin immediately, the official said.
Meanwhile, at least 58 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
This comes after Hamas said it agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Qatar and Egypt on Monday. The proposal is said to be based on the framework put forward by the U.S. in June.
Israel has not commented on Hamas’ decision to accept the proposal.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed, at least in part, Hamas’ decision to accept the proposed ceasefire to President Donald Trump’s social media post saying that the remaining hostages will only be returned “when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!”
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Hamas accepted this proposal after the president of the United States posted a very strong statement about this conflict on Truth Social yesterday,” Leavitt said Tuesday, referring reporters back to Trump’s post.
ABC News has not confirmed the exact details of the proposal or what Hamas agreed to.
Earlier this month, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the Israeli military to occupy Gaza City, in an expansion of military operations that comes amid international condemnation of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s planned Gaza City military offensive “must be immediately halted,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Aug. 8, warning of “more massive forced displacement.”
“This further escalation will result in more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction,” Turk said.
Last month, 115 organizations described the dire food shortage in Gaza as “mass starvation,” as the “Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza.”
Israel has blamed shortages on Hamas with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying on Aug. 20, “If we had a starvation policy, no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war. … In the last few months, Hamas has violently looted the aid trucks meant to get to Palestinian civilians. They deliberately created a shortage of supply.” Hamas, however, has denied those claims.
Earlier this week, the IDF said it is appealing to “Jewish communities abroad” to deal with a severe shortage of soldiers, according to a senior IDF official.
The shortage of soldiers — estimated at 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers — and the lack of Haredi recruitment from the ultra-orthodox community are pushing the IDF to exhaust every other possibility to replenish its ranks, the senior IDF official said.
The IDF intends to turn to the largest Jewish communities in the Diaspora, with the aim of encouraging the recruitment of young Jews of military age to come to Israel for several years to serve in the army, the official added. The main communities where efforts will be focused are the United States and France.
The recruitment potential among those aged 18 to 25, of draft age, in the largest Jewish communities exceeds 10,000 in each annual cohort, according to studies conducted by the IDF’s Manpower Division on this subject, the senior official said.
“The goal we intend to set is to increase the recruitment of approximately 600 to 700 additional soldiers each year from Jewish communities abroad,” a senior IDF official told ABC News.
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