Israel launched strikes on Gaza City overnight as it moved forward with a new offensive in the Palestinian enclave despite international condemnation and mounting domestic protests.
Explosions rocked neighborhoods in the city Thursday after Israel said its military had entered the first stages of a planned assault that includes calling up 60,000 reservists. The operation has sent civilians fleeing once again, intensifying fears about the starvation crisis unfolding in the territory.
Israel also carried out strikes on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, and Deir al-Balah, in the center of the territory, on Thursday. Video from Deir al-Balah showed people running away from a large plume of smoke.
The expanded campaign also throws ceasefire talks into question after Hamas said it had accepted a new proposal. Israel's defiance of global pressure has led to growing tensions with its allies, and it enters the Gaza City campaign while clashing publicly with major Western powers.
"I have come to approve the IDF’s plans to take over Gaza City and defeat Hamas," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement Thursday. "At the same time, I have instructed to begin immediate negotiations on the release of all our hostages and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel."
He added, "These two things — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages — go hand in hand."
Hamas did not issue an immediate response to Netanyahu's statement.
Effie Defrin, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, said Wednesday that Israel would "intensify the strikes on Hamas in Gaza City, the political and military stronghold of the terror organization." Defrin said the military would issue evacuation orders to minimize civilian casualties.
The military said it had begun to notify "medical officials and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip in order to prepare for the evacuation of the population to the southern Gaza Strip."
For Palestinians who have faced repeated displacement, there is a sense of weariness.
In Gaza City, Riad Ashkantana said there were "no safe spaces" in the enclave.
"Last time, I was displaced to the south, but this time there’s no possibility for me to move, because our displacement is death — let’s face it with honor next to our homes," he told the Reuters news agency. "There is no safety, anyway. Israel is letting us go south, but there’s no safe spaces."
Hospitals and aid groups say they are under increasing pressure.
"The humanitarian system is collapsing day by day," Ahmad al-Shawa, the director of the umbrella group Palestinian NGO Network, told NBC News. "We have almost nothing in our warehouses to deliver to the people."
The United Nations body for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said nearly 1 in 3 children in Gaza City were now malnourished.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told reporters in Geneva that children in Gaza are "extremely weak" and that "many will simply not have the strength to undergo a new displacement."
He criticized Israel's restrictions on aid. "It is a manufactured and fabricated famine. It is deliberate. Food has been used as an instrument of war," he said.
And the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Thursday that two people had died from malnutrition in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 271 since Israel launched its assault on the besieged enclave. The ministry also said that 40 people had been killed on Thursday and their bodies were taken to Gaza hospitals.
Israel has repeatedly denied that widespread starvation is taking place.
Hamas said this week that it had accepted a ceasefire proposal from Arab mediators, but Israel has yet to say whether it will accept the deal.
Netanyahu has been publicly making the case for pressing ahead with military action.
In a 40-minute interview with the "Triggernometry" podcast, Netanyahu rejected allegations from human rights groups that Israel was carrying out a genocide in Gaza, telling the podcast those claims were a fraud. "If we wanted to commit genocide, we would have done it in one afternoon. We have the capacity, but we don’t do that," he said.
Netanyahu said he was aware Israel had "work to do" to win over people across the West, citing young people in particular.
"We Jews have been fighting and losing the propaganda war for about 2,500 years. What’s different now is that we’re winning the ground war," he said.
In recent days, his diplomatic approach has involved a war of words with the leaders of Australia and France over their decisions to recognize a Palestinian state.
In an interview with Sky News Australia on Thursday, Netanyahu said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s "record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of these Hamas terrorist monsters." Earlier in the week, he labeled Albanese a "weak politician" who had "betrayed" Israel, sparking backlash.
And French President Emmanuel Macron’s office pushed back in a statement this week against claims that its decision to recognize a Palestinian state had fueled a rise in antisemitism, saying they were "erroneous, abject, and will not go unanswered."
The diplomatic spats are in stark contrast to President Donald Trump's continued backing for Israel.
In his podcast interview, Netanyahu highlighted the American support. "I think we’ve been very fortunate to have a leader in the United States who doesn’t act like the European leaders," he said.
