Netanyahu to summon an Israeli security meeting on control of more territory in the Gaza War

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was to meet a small group of high ministers on Thursday to discuss the plans for the military in order to take control of more territory in Gaza, despite increasing criticism in the country and abroad for the war of almost two years.

Netanyahu will summon the security cabinet following a three -hour meeting this week with the military leader, whom Israeli officials described as tense, saying that the military leader had pushed the campaign to extend.

Opinion polls show that most Israelis want war ending with an agreement that would see the release of the remaining hostages. The Netanyahu government insisted on the total victory against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, who sparked the war with its fatal attack in October 2023 against Israel.

The idea that Israeli forces grow in areas that they do not already control in the broken Palestinian enclave caused an alarm in Israel. The mother of a hostage exhorted people on Thursday to take to the streets to express their opposition to the expansion of the campaign.

“Someone who talks about a complete affair will not conquer the band and put hostages and soldiers in danger,” wrote Einav Zangauker on X in comments addressed to Netanyahu.

Look | The expansion of Israeli operations could be catastrophic, says a UN official::

Israel expanding Gaza operations risks “catastrophic consequences”, says a UN official

A senior United Nations warned that there would be “catastrophic consequences” if Israel is expanding its military operations in Gaza, after having reported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is putting for total reoccupation.

The Families of the Otages Forum, which represents the captives held in Gaza, urged the military chief of staff Eyal Zamir to oppose the widening of the war and called on the government to accept an agreement that would end the war and release the remaining hostages.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the soldiers would take government decisions on Wednesday until all war objectives are achieved. Israeli leaders have long insisted that Hamas is disarmed and has no future role in a demilitarized Gaza and the hostages are released.

The UN called reports on a possible extension of Israeli military operations in Gaza “deeply alarming” if it is true.

There are 50 hostages still held in Gaza, whose Israeli officials believe that 20 are alive. Most people released so far have occurred following diplomatic negotiations. Discussions to a ceasefire that could have seen released hostages collapsed in July.

A senior Palestinian official said Hamas told Arab mediators that an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza would take over the cease-fire negotiations.

Israeli officials accuse Hamas of seizing aid to distribute to its fighters and to sell in the Gaza markets to finance its operations, accusations that the militant group denies. Last month, the American analysis found no evidence of Gaza flight from Hamas, contesting the main justification that Israel and the United States give to support a new armed private assistance operation.

Videos published last week of two living hostages showed them emaciated and fragile, triggering an international condemnation.

Hamas, which has governed Gaza for almost two decades but which now controls only the documents, insists that any agreement must lead to a permanent end of the war. Israel says that the group does not intend to follow the promises of abandoning power afterwards.

“What is left? Palestinian says

The Israeli army says that it controls around 75% of Gaza. The majority of the Gaza population of around two million has been moved several times in the last 22 months, and the aid groups warn that residents of the enclave are on the brink of famine.

“The government of Netanyahu is already achieving a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza,” said the independent videographer of CBC News, 59, Rafiq Al-Masry, CBC News, Mohamed El Saif in Gaza City.

“The expansion of the military operation will only increase the number of martyrs … and the destruction of houses and shelters.”

“What remains (Israel) to do?” Najla Abu Jarad, 60, told CBC News.

“My plan is never to leave. I will die in front of this tent camp. Death is more honorable than for them to move from one place to another.”

Nearly 200 Palestinians died from famine in Gaza since the start of the war, almost half of whom were children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Director General of the World Health Organization said Thursday that Gaza had seen her biggest monthly figure in acute malnutrition in children.

In July, nearly 12,000 children under the age of five were identified as acute malnutrition in Gaza – the highest monthly figure ever recorded, according to the director general of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Netanyahu undergoes intense international pressure to achieve a cease-fire agreement, but it also faces the internal pressure of its coalition to continue the war. Some far -right allies of his government have pressure for a complete occupation of Gaza and Israel to restore colonies there, two decades after it has withdrawn.

Far -right Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, told journalists on Wednesday that he hoped that the government would approve of the army to take control of the rest of Gaza.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 hostages taken to Gaza in October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks against the South Israeli communities.

More than 61,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli aggression against Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which said that 98 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fires across the enclave in the past 24 hours.