Israel began mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists on Tuesday as part of its plan to expand its offensive on Gaza City, sparking opposition at home and condemnation abroad.
The September call-up, announced last month, comes as ground and air forces advance and pursue more targets in northern and central Gaza, hitting parts of Zeitoun and Shijaiyah, two western Gaza City neighborhoods where Israeli forces have repeatedly operated during the 23-month war against Hamas militants.
Zeitoun, once the largest neighborhood in Gaza City, with markets, schools, and clinics, has been transformed in the past month. It now features empty streets and buildings reduced to rubble, turning it into what the Israeli military designated last week as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gaza City is Hamas's political and military stronghold and, according to Israel, still hosts a vast network of tunnels despite multiple incursions during the war. It is also one of the last refuges in the northern Strip, where hundreds of thousands of civilians survive facing the double threat of combat and famine.
The call-up of reservists will be gradual and include 60,000 personnel, the Israeli military said last month. It will also extend the service of another 20,000 already on active duty.
Since the world's leading authority on food crises declared last month that Gaza City was experiencing famine, malnutrition-related deaths have surged. Gaza's Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said Tuesday that a total of 185 people died of malnutrition in August, the highest number in months.
A total of 63,557 Palestinians have died in the war, according to the same ministry, which says another 160,660 people have been wounded. The agency does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up about half of the dead.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government but is staffed by medical professionals. UN agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them but has not provided its own count.
The war began with an attack on October 7, 2023, in southern Israel, in which Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Forty-eight hostages are still inside Gaza, of whom about 20 are still alive, according to Israel, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other agreements.
