Israel’s defence minister warned Friday that Gaza’s largest city could be destroyed unless Hamas yields to his country’s terms.
A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would authorise the military to mount a major operation to seize Gaza City, Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that it could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas largely reduced to rubble earlier in the war.
“The gates of hell will soon open on the heads of Hamas’ murderers and rapists in Gaza — until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war,” Katz wrote in a post on X.
A Palestinian girl waits at a community kitchen before donated food is distributed in Gaza City. (Picture: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)He restated Israel’s ceasefire demands: the release of all hostages and Hamas’ complete disarmament.
It comes as the world’s leading authority on food crises said Gaza is gripped by famine from fighting and an Israeli blockade.
Hamas issued a statement that called Katz’s comments “a confession of committing a crime that amounts to ethnic cleansing.”
The militant group has said it would release captives in exchange for ending the war, but it rejects disarmament without the creation of a Palestinian state.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, expressed frustration with Hamas, suggesting the militant group was less interested in making deals to release hostages with so few left alive in captivity.
“The situation has to end. It’s extortion, and it has to end,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “And we’ll see what happens. I actually think (the hostages are) safer in many ways if you went in and you really went in fast and you did it.”
Netanyahu on Thursday said he had instructed officials “to begin immediate negotiations” to release hostages and end the war on Israel’s terms.
It was not immediately clear if that meant Israel would return to long-running talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
With ground troops already active in strategic areas, the wide-scale operation in Gaza City could start within days.
Israel says Gaza City is still a Hamas stronghold, with a network of militant tunnels.
The city is also home to hundreds of thousands of civilians, some of whom have fled from other areas, and it contains some of the territory’s critical infrastructure and health facilities.
Israel could also accept the latest ceasefire proposal, which would forestall the offensive.
The proposal calls for a phased deal involving hostage and prisoner exchanges and a pullback of Israeli troops, while talks continue on a longer-term ceasefire.
Israeli leaders have resisted such terms since abandoning a similar agreement earlier this year under pressure from Netanyahu’s far-right coalition allies.
Many Israelis fear an assault could doom the roughly 20 hostages who have survived captivity since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack.
Netanyahu has argued that the offensive is the surest way to free captives and crush Hamas.
“These two things — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages — go hand in hand,” Netanyahu said on Thursday while touring a command centre in southern Israel.
The world’s leading authority on food crises, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, released a report on Friday saying nearly half a million people in Gaza, about one-fourth of the population, face catastrophic hunger that leaves many at risk of dying.
Netanyahu’s office denounced the IPC report as “an outright lie.”
Israel says it has allowed enough aid to enter during the war, and it eased its blockade in recent weeks after images of emaciated children sparked international outrage.
Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital said at least 17 Palestinians were killed on Friday, as Israel escalated activity in the lead-up to its broader planned offensive.
With additional reporting from AP
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