Gaza City: Israel’s defence minister warned Friday that Gaza’s largest city would be destroyed unless Hamas yields to Israel’s terms, as the world’s leading authority on food crises said the city was gripped by famine from fighting and blockade. A day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would authorise the military to mount a major operation to seize Gaza City, Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that the enclave’s largest city could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas reduced to rubble earlier in the war.
“The gates of hell will soon open on the heads of Hamas’ murderers and rapists in Gaza — until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war,” Katz wrote in a post on X.
He restated Israel’s cease-fire demands: the release of all hostages and Hamas’s complete disarmament. Hamas has said it would release captives in exchange for ending the war, but rejects disarmament without the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu on Thursday said he had instructed officials “to begin immediate negotiations” to release hostages and end the war on acceptable terms — Israel’s first public response to the latest ceasefire proposal. With ground troops already active in strategic areas, the wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days.
Gaza City is Hamas’s military and governing stronghold, atop what Israel believes is an extensive tunnel network. It is also sheltering hundreds of thousands of civilians and still houses some of the strip’s critical infrastructure and health facilities. Hamas said earlier this week that it had agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators, which — if accepted by Israel — could forestall the offensive. The parties do not negotiate directly, and similar announcements have been made in the past that did not lead to ceasefires.
The proposal outlines a phased deal involving hostage and prisoner exchanges and a pullback of Israeli troops, while talks continue on a longer-term cease-fire. agencies