Israeli military say they have begun the first stages of attack on the city of Gaza

The Israeli military claims that the “preliminary actions” of a planned offensive for capturing and occupying the entire city of Gaza have begun and is already detention on its outskirts.

A military spokesman said the troops were already operating in the Zeitoun and Jabalia districts to lay the foundations of the offensive, which the Minister of Defense Israel Katz approved on Tuesday and would be laid in the security cabinet later this week.

About 60,000 reservists are called for early September to release active staff for the operation.

It is expected that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the city of Gaza will be ordered to evacuate and head to the shelters in southern Gaza.

Many Israeli allies condemned the plan, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning Wednesday that “it can only lead to disaster for both peoples and the risks of immersing the entire region in a permanent war cycle.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICC), meanwhile, stated more exhaust and increase the military action “The risk that worsens already the catastrophic situation” for 2.1 million Gaza population.

The Israeli government has announced its intention to conquer the entire Gaza band after the indirect conversations with Hamas to end the fire and the hostage release deal broke up last month.

Speaking at a television briefing on Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Force spokesman (IDF) Brigadier General Efi Defrin said Hamas was “battered and bruised” after a 22 -month war.

“We will deepen the damage of Hamas in Gaza, a fortress of the government and military terror for the terrorist organization,” he added. “We will deepen the damage to the terrorist infrastructure above and underground and divide the dependence of the population on Hamas.”

But Defrin said IDF “doesn’t wait” to start the operation.

“We have started preliminary action and now IDF troops are holding the outskirts of Gaza.”

Two brigades operated on the ground in the Zeitun neighborhood, where in recent days they had deployed an underground tunnel that contained a weapon, and the third brigade operated in the Jabalia area, he added.

In order to “minimize the harm of civilians,” he said, the civilian population of Gaza will be warned to evacuate their safety.

A spokesman for the Hamas Civil Protection Agency in Gaza, Mahmoud Basal, a news agency told the AFP on Tuesday that the situation was “very dangerous and unbearable” in the city neighborhoods Zeitoun and Sabra.

The agency reported that Israeli strikes and fire killed 25 people from all over Wednesday. They included three children and their parents, whose home in the Badr Badr Camp, west of Gaza, was bombed, the statement said.

Defin also said that IDF also is doing everything possible to prevent the harm of 50 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, 20 of which are thought to be alive. Their families have expressed fears that those in the city of Gaza may be threatened by the offensive.

The ICC has warned of a catastrophic situation for both Palestinian civilians and hostages if military activity in gas intensified.

“After months of ruthless hostilities and repeated displacement, the people in Gaza are completely exhausted.

“Any further strengthening of military operations will only deepen the suffering, tear more families and threaten an irreversible humanitarian crisis. The hostage’s life can also be at risk,” he adds.

He called for the immediate cessation of fire and the rapid and unobstructed passage of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Mediators Qatar and Egypt are trying to secure a deal to end the fire and submit a new proposal for a 60-day truce and the release of about half of the hostages, which Hamas said he had accepted on Monday.

Israel has not yet filed an official answer, but Israeli officials insisted on Tuesday that they will no longer accept a partial deal and demanded a comprehensive one that will see all the hostages published.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to an attack led by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and 251 others were hostage.

Since then, at least 62 122 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory. The ministry’s numbers are cited by the UN and others as the most reliable source of statistics available to the victims.