World leaders renewed calls for a ceasefire as Israel launched a new ground offensive in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this week that he had instructed Israeli troops to quickly seize Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, including those displaced by Israel’s bombardment of other parts of the besieged enclave.
Israel’s military spokesperson Effie Defrin said Wednesday that Israeli troops had already captured the outskirts of the city, which he called a Hamas stronghold. Around 60,000 Israeli reservists are being called up next month for the operation.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reacted to the new offensive with dismay in a post on social media Thursday, urging Israel “to avoid the massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza would inevitably cause.”
More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its offensive following Hamas militants’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, which killed some 1,200 people on Israeli soil, with international aid groups warning of widespread starvation and disease.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday the conquest of Gaza City “risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war” and called for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed in Gaza.
Belgium’s foreign ministry said Wednesday it “urges the government of Israel to reverse its decision to outroll operation ‘Gideon Chariots II,’” referring to the planned Gaza City siege, adding it would “lead to more death, destruction and mass displacement.”
Israel’s simultaneous plan to expand its settlements in the West Bank has also drawn condemnation. A proposal to build about 3,000 homes on a 12 square kilometer tract of Palestinian land near Jerusalem, which has stalled for two decades amid international concerns that it would cleave the West Bank in two and harm prospects of a viable Palestinian state, was approved by a government committee this week.
Guterres said Thursday the decision “must be reversed,” while British Foreign Secretary David Lammy called it “a flagrant breach of international law.”
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, are ongoing, with Hamas accepting an Egyptian and Qatari truce proposal earlier this week that Israel said it would review.
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