By Emily Rose, Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi
JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of reservists started to report for duty on Tuesday ahead of a new Israeli offensive in Gaza City, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to speed up, despite warnings from senior ranks.
Israeli Army Radio said that some 40,000 reservists would report for duty on Tuesday for the Gaza City offensive. The military said it was readying logistically for the intake of reservists ahead of the offensive.
Israel’s security cabinet, chaired by Netanyahu, approved a plan last month to expand the campaign in Gaza with the aim of taking Gaza City, where Israeli forces waged fierce urban warfare with Hamas in the early stages of the war. Israel currently holds about 75% of the Gaza Strip.
A security cabinet meeting late on Sunday included angry exchanges between Netanyahu and his ministers, who want to push ahead with the Gaza City offensive, and military chief Eyal Zamir, who has urged the politicians to reach a ceasefire deal.
Zamir said the campaign will endanger hostages and put further strain on the already over-stretched army, according to four ministers and two military officials present at the meeting.
This follows similar exchanges between Zamir and Netanyahu's cabinet last month. Netanyahu said on August 20 that he gave the instruction to speed up the timetable for taking what he describes as Hamas' last bastion.
But on August 21, in discussions to approve the battle plans, the military again warned against hostages being endangered and said it could not begin the campaign for at least two months, according to a source in Netanyahu's circle and a defence official.
The military's main reason was that more time was needed for humanitarian efforts. But surveys have shown a substantial proportion of reservists are unhappy with the cabinet's plans, with some having taken the unusual step of openly accusing the government of lacking a cohesive strategy for Gaza, a post-war plan for the enclave or clear victory metrics.
"I don't feel like I'm doing anything that really applies significant pressure to have Hamas release the hostages," one combat reservist who has been serving in Gaza since October 7 told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly.
ISRAELI STRIKES
At least 25 people were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza, at least 16 of them in Gaza City, and scores more were wounded, local health authorities said. The figure included five who were killed while waiting in a food line in the south, a strike on an apartment where nine were killed, and seven killed by Israeli tank fire. Four people were also killed in northern Gaza, local authorities said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment but it has stated that its forces are combating fighters on the outskirts of Gaza City, destroying tunnels and militant infrastructure and seizing weapons.
Thirteen more Palestinians, including three children, have died of malnutrition and starvation in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Tuesday, raising officially reported deaths from such causes to at least 361, including 130 children, the vast majority in recent weeks.
Israel disputes the hunger fatality figures given by the health ministry of Gaza's Hamas-run government, arguing that deaths were due to other medical causes.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when gunmen led by Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities near the border, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages including children into Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
Over 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's air and ground war in Gaza since then, according to Gaza health officials, who do not say how many were militants but have said most of those killed have been women and children.
Ceasefire talks that would see a pause in the fighting ended in a deadlock in July.
Israeli authorities believe that of the 48 remaining captives, 20 hostages are still alive.
(Reporting by Emily Rose and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in CairoEditing by Peter Graff)
