(LONDON) — Israel has begun the “first stages of the attack on Gaza City” on Wednesday as it plans to call up to 50,000 to 60,000 reservists in order to occupy the city, according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Eddie Defrin and an Israeli military official.

“We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City. IDF forces are already holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” Defrin said Wednesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz approved on Wednesday the Israel Defense Forces’ military plan, codenamed “Gideon’s Chariots II,” to invade and occupy the city, according to the official.

The call-ups will begin immediately, the official said.

Meanwhile, at least 58 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

This comes after Hamas said it agreed to a ceasefire proposal from Qatar and Egypt on Monday. The proposal is said to be based on the framework put forward by the U.S. in June.

Israel has not commented on Hamas’ decision to accept the proposal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed, at least in part, Hamas’ decision to accept the proposed ceasefire to President Donald Trump’s social media post saying that the remaining hostages will only be returned “when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!!”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Hamas accepted this proposal after the president of the United States posted a very strong statement about this conflict on Truth Social yesterday,” Leavitt said Tuesday, referring reporters back to Trump’s post.

ABC News has not confirmed the exact details of the proposal or what Hamas agreed to.

Earlier this month, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the Israeli military to occupy Gaza City, in an expansion of military operations that comes amid international condemnation of the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s planned Gaza City military offensive “must be immediately halted,” United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Aug. 8, warning of “more massive forced displacement.”

“This further escalation will result in more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction,” Turk said.

Last month, 115 organizations described the dire food shortage in Gaza as “mass starvation,” as the “Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza.”

Israel has blamed shortages on Hamas with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying on Aug. 20, “If we had a starvation policy, no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war. … In the last few months, Hamas has violently looted the aid trucks meant to get to Palestinian civilians. They deliberately created a shortage of supply.” Hamas, however, has denied those claims.

Earlier this week, the IDF said it is appealing to “Jewish communities abroad” to deal with a severe shortage of soldiers, according to a senior IDF official.

The shortage of soldiers — estimated at 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers — and the lack of Haredi recruitment from the ultra-orthodox community are pushing the IDF to exhaust every other possibility to replenish its ranks, the senior IDF official said.

The IDF intends to turn to the largest Jewish communities in the Diaspora, with the aim of encouraging the recruitment of young Jews of military age to come to Israel for several years to serve in the army, the official added. The main communities where efforts will be focused are the United States and France.

The recruitment potential among those aged 18 to 25, of draft age, in the largest Jewish communities exceeds 10,000 in each annual cohort, according to studies conducted by the IDF’s Manpower Division on this subject, the senior official said.

“The goal we intend to set is to increase the recruitment of approximately 600 to 700 additional soldiers each year from Jewish communities abroad,” a senior IDF official told ABC News.

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Palestinians flee Gaza City districts as Israel says first stages of assault have begun

4 hours ago Share Save Yolande Knell Middle East Correspondent David Gritten & Gabriela Pomeroy BBC News Share Save

Watch: Explosions light up skyline as Israel begins first stages of Gaza City assault

Palestinians are fleeing parts of Gaza City after the Israeli military began the first stages of a planned ground offensive, officials in the city say. Israel’s troops have established a foothold on the outskirts of the city – which is home to more than a million Palestinians – after days of intense bombing and artillery fire. It has prompted UN Secretary General António Guterres to renew calls for an immediate ceasefire “to avoid the death and destruction” an assault would “inevitably cause”. Israel wants to signal that it is pressing ahead with its plan to capture all of Gaza City despite international criticism.

Hundreds of Palestinians in the Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods of Gaza City have left towards the north-western part of the city. A military spokesman said troops were already operating in the Zeitoun and Jabalia areas to lay the groundwork for the offensive, which Defence Minister Israel Katz approved on Tuesday and which will be put to the security cabinet later this week. About 60,000 reservists are being called up for the beginning of September to free up active-duty personnel for the operation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “shortening the timelines” for seizing what he described as “the last terror strongholds” in Gaza. In a statement, Hamas accused the Israeli leader of continuing a “brutal war against innocent civilians in Gaza City” and criticised what it said was his “disregard” for a new ceasefire proposal from regional mediators. Israel has yet to formally respond to the plan. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City are expected to be ordered to evacuate and head to southern Gaza as preparations for Israel’s takeover plan get under way.

Many of Israel’s allies have condemned its plan, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning on Wednesday that it “can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war”. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) meanwhile said further displacement and an intensification of hostilities “risk worsening an already catastrophic situation” for Gaza’s 2.1 million population. Israel’s government announced its intention to conquer the entire Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down last month.

Israel begins its invasion of Gaza City after calling up 60,000 reservists as Palestinians flee

Israel’s army has begun its invasion of Gaza City after calling up 60,000 reservists, forcing Palestinians to flee the region.

Israel Defence Forces spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said it now controls the outskirts of Gaza City, which was one of Hamas’ last strongholds.

After a clash with Hamas fighters south of Khan Younis on Wednesday, he said ‘We will deepen the blows to Hamas in Gaza City, a terror stronghold…

‘We will deepen the blows to the terror infrastructure above and below ground, and disconnect the reliance of the population on Hamas.’

He added that the army ‘is not waiting’ and that ‘preliminary operations are underway in the area’ with Hamas now ‘battered and bruised.’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the army to ‘shorten the timelines for seizing the last terror strongholds and for the defeat of Hamas,’ according to a statement that did not give new dates.

Last week he said expanding the assault on Gaza was the ‘best way to end the war.’ He said Israel had ‘no choice’ but to ‘finish the job’ and ‘defeat’ Hamas in Gaza City and the coastal camps in al-Mawasi.

Israel strike on Gaza City on July 21. Israel’s army has begun its invasion of Gaza City after calling up 60,000 reservists, forcing Palestinians to flee the region

He compared entering Gaza City to last year’s Rafah operation, when more than a million people were evacuated from the border town.

The army has called up 60,000 reservists as the war continues. Plans suggest reservists would report in September, bringing the total active force to about 120,000.

The military has already launched initial operations in the Jabalia and Zeitoun districts around Gaza City.

The Israeli statements signalled Israel was pressing ahead with its plan to seize Gaza’s biggest urban centre despite international criticism of an operation likely to force the displacement of many more Palestinians.

Defrin said troops were already operating on the outskirts of Gaza City, and Hamas was now a ‘battered and bruised’ guerrilla force. ‘We will deepen the attack on Hamas in Gaza City, a stronghold of governmental and military terror for the terrorist organization,’ the spokesman said.

Israel’s military called up tens of thousands of reservists on Wednesday in preparation for the expected assault on Gaza City, as the Israeli government considered a new truce proposal.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged for a ceasefire in Gaza, warning the new operation could bring a ‘catastrophic’ humanitarian toll.

Speaking in Japan, he said: ‘It is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza… necessary to avoid the death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would inevitably cause.’

Palestinians gather at the site of a strike last month. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the army to ‘shorten the timelines for seizing the last terror strongholds and for the defeat of Hamas,’ according to a statement that did not give new dates

World leaders condemned Israel’s decision to move into Gaza City.

They warned that the move risks a humanitarian disaster and undermines the hopes for peace.

Israel’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank, including approval of a large new project in the E1 area near Jerusalem, heightened international criticism, with many saying it destroyed any chance for a two-state solution.

Israel has announced the start of ground operations in Gaza City, prompting the remaining civilians in the area to flee to the south. It has also said that the military will call up 60,000 reservists for the offensive.

The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross have called for a ceasefire to prevent further civilian casualties.

Here are all the headlines from Israel, Gaza, and the wider Middle East on Thursday, August 21:

9.53am BST

Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored pleas from Australian Jewish groups to calm his feud with Anthony Albanese, further criticising the prime minister and escalating an ugly spat between the two leaders.

Australia’s peak Jewish group, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), on Wednesday labelled Israeli prime minister Netanyahu’s attack on Albanese as “inflammatory and provocative”, and a “clumsy intervention” which had affected Australia’s Jewish community.

ECAJ’s president, Daniel Aghion, wrote letters to both leaders, critical of the conduct of Albanese and Netanyahu and urging a resolution “in the usual way through diplomacy rather than public posturing”. The group’s co-executive, Alex Ryvchin, had additionally called for “both governments to remember what’s at stake to ensure that calm heads prevail and to conduct their matters of state privately, diplomatically”.

But in a new interview with Sky News, Netanyahu again labelled Albanese “weak”. Read the full story here: