Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said Israel will begin immediate negotiations for the release of all hostages held in Gaza and an end to the nearly two-year-old war on terms acceptable to Israel.
Speaking to soldiers serving in Gaza, Netanyahu said he was meeting commanders to approve plans for capturing Gaza City and defeating Hamas.
“At the same time I have issued instructions to begin immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel,” he said, adding: “We are in the decision-making phase.”
The Israeli military maintained its pressure on Gaza City with heavy bombardments through Wednesday night and into Thursday morning, residents said. The attacks came ahead of a Thursday evening meeting between Mr Netanyahu and his ministers on plans to seize the enclave’s largest city.
RM Block
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of 21 countries, including Ireland, have condemned Israel’s approval of a settlement project east of Jerusalem as “unacceptable and a violation of international law”.
The ministers and the vice-president of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas, issued a joint statement on Thursday afternoon calling in the “strongest terms” for an “immediate reversal” of the decision, which they said brings the area “further away from peace”.
The settlement plan, which would cut across land the Palestinians seek for a state, was announced last week and, according to a statement on Wednesday from Israeli minister for finance Bezalel Smotrich, has received final approval. The plan has been condemned by the United Nations.
The statement signed by the foreign ministers of France, the UK, Italy, Australia, Canada, Japan and others says the planned settlement of the “E1″ area “brings no benefits to the Israeli people” but “risks undermining security”.
“Unilateral action by the Israeli government undermines our collective desire for security and prosperity in the Middle East,” the signatories say.
Israel’s military has called up 60,000 reservists as part of its plan to capture and occupy Gaza City. However, one military official said most reservists would not serve in combat and that the strategy to take Gaza City had not yet been finalised.
Calling up tens of thousands of reservists is also likely to take weeks, giving time for mediators to attempt to bridge gaps over a new temporary ceasefire proposal that Hamas has accepted, but the Israeli government is yet to officially respond to.
The proposal calls for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 10 living hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas militants and of 18 bodies. In turn, Israel would release about 200 long-serving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The Israeli government has stated that all of the remaining 50 hostages held by militants in Gaza must be released at once. Israeli officials believe that about 20 of them are still alive.
In a sign of growing despair at conditions in Gaza, residents staged a rare show of protest against the war on Thursday.
Carrying banners reading “Save Gaza, enough” and “Gaza is dying by the killing, hunger and oppression,” hundreds of people rallied in Gaza City in a march organised by several civil unions.
On Thursday the Gaza health ministry said at least 70 people had been killed in Israeli fire in the enclave in the previous 24 hours, including eight people in a house in Sabra suburb in Gaza City.
A statement from the Palestinian Fatah movement said one of those killed in Sabra was a Fatah leader and former militant, along with seven members of his family. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Two more people have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Thursday. The new deaths raised the number of Palestinians who have died from such causes to 271, including 112 children, since the war began.
Israel disputes malnutrition and starvation figures posted by the Gaza health ministry. – Reuters
