3 minutes

The Israeli army is now operating in the outskirts of Gaza City, which it is preparing to occupy. This was stated by the Israeli media, the Chief of General Staff of the army, Eyal Zamir. According to the agencies, the army has also started contacting hospitals and international organizations operating in Gaza to prepare for an evacuation outside the city. However, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health refuses the evacuation. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered the immediate start of negotiations on the release of hostages and an end to the war.

“We already have forces operating in the outskirts of the city, and more forces will join later,” said Zamir, who visited Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. According to him, Israel’s war goals are still the same – to free the hostages and defeat Hamas. According to Zamir, Hamas has already weakened significantly. “It has gone from the terrorist army we saw on October 7 (2023) to a guerrilla organization,” he said.

Netanyahu has ordered the army to shorten the time it takes to prepare for the occupation of Gaza City, which the Israeli prime minister considers the last major bastion of the terrorist Hamas. The plan to occupy the city, which the Jewish state's security cabinet approved last week, has drawn international criticism and concerns from part of the Israeli public. The government is expected to finally approve the plan to occupy Gaza on Thursday.

An unnamed official in Netanyahu's office, according to the Israeli press, said after the prime minister's statement that the Jewish state would send its negotiating team once a location for the talks was determined. The mediators of the talks with Hamas - Egypt, Qatar and the United States - have not yet publicly responded to the Israeli statement.

The Jewish state's army said on Thursday that it had begun contacting hospitals and international humanitarian organizations to prepare for the evacuation of the city, according to Reuters and AFP. According to the plan, mentioned by Israeli media, the army will allow residents of Gaza City to leave before the military offensive. The agencies also reported Israeli shelling of some of the outskirts, where hundreds of thousands of people are located.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry has opposed the evacuation, saying it would further weaken the health service. The ministry said the evacuation would “deprive more than a million people of their right to medical care and put the lives of residents, patients and the wounded at immediate risk.” The ministry has called on UN agencies and NGOs to act to protect the health system in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu orders talks on hostage release

Netanyahu also ordered immediate negotiations to release hostages and end the war in Gaza, Reuters and AFP reported. This was apparently in response to a proposed ceasefire agreement agreed to by the Hamas terror group on Monday. However, the Times of Israel (Tol) website noted that it was unclear to whom the prime minister gave the order.

“The defeat of Hamas and the release of all our hostages go hand in hand,” Netanyahu said in an official video statement. However, the families of the hostages reject this argument, pointing out that the terrorist movement has not released any hostages since March, when Jerusalem abandoned the previous draft of the hostage agreement, Tol recalled.

The proposal was prepared by Egyptian and Qatari diplomats. They say the document closely resembles a proposal by US envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel agreed to before the collapse of indirect talks in July. The new proposal, approved by Hamas, calls for the release of about half of the fifty hostages held in the Gaza Strip and a 60-day ceasefire.

However, Israeli officials are now demanding the release of all hostages at once and an end to the war in line with Israeli priorities, which include the disarmament of Hamas and control of the overall security situation in the Gaza Strip by Jerusalem, as is evident from their previous statements.

The war in the Gaza Strip was sparked by a Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli territory around the Strip. According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people were killed in the incident. According to Hamas-controlled authorities, over 62,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip since the war began in October 2023.