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Protesters took to the streets across Israel for what they called a “day of disruption” on Wednesday, denouncing the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists for an offensive in Gaza City that critics fear could endanger the lives of the hostages still being held by Hamas.
Demonstrators have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of failing to secure a ceasefire deal and intensifying an offensive in Gaza instead.
“We have to take an extreme action so that someone will remember. There’s no such thing as a state abandoning its citizens,” Yael Kuperman, a protester near the Knesset, told the Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
The IDF said last month that Defence Minister Israel Katz had approved plans for an expanded military operation into Gaza City and that 60,000 reservists would be called up to support it.
An additional 20,000 reservists currently in the military are also expected to have their service extended.
Israel’s military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, told reservists on Tuesday that their mobilisation comes as the army prepares to “increase and enhance” its operations in Gaza.
“We are preparing for the continuation of the war, the continuation of the fights. We are going to increase and enhance the strikes of our operation, and that is why we called you,” he said.
Israel says that Gaza City, the largest city in the Strip, remains a Hamas stronghold and that the group operates a vast underground tunnel network.
Israel has intensified air and ground assaults on the outskirts of Gaza City, particularly in western neighbourhoods where people are being driven to flee toward the coast, according to humanitarian groups that coordinate assistance for the displaced.
Site Management Cluster, one such group, said on Wednesday that the prohibitively high cost of moving families, logistical hurdles and a lack of places to go are complicating evacuation efforts.
“Palestinians are also reluctant to move due to the fear of not being able to return or exhaustion from repeated displacement,” the group said.
Displaced multiple times
The twin threats of combat and famine are growing more acute for families in Gaza City, Palestinians and aid workers say.
The vast majority of Palestinians have reported being displaced multiple times during the 23-month war.
Hospital officials said on Wednesday that the death toll kept climbing, with 24 people killed in airstrikes overnight into Wednesday.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry also reported on Wednesday that five adults and one child had died from malnutrition over the past day, bringing the total toll to 367, including 131 children throughout the war.
In a letter sent as members of the UK Parliament returned to work in the United Kingdom, three NGOs highlighted how more than 3,700 Palestinians were killed over the 34-day summer break.
The organisations demanded the British government take action, noting famine, a collapse of the health care system and the killing of Mariam Abu Daqqa, a visual journalist who had worked for APnews agency and Doctors Without Borders.
“This is not merely a humanitarian crisis — it is a full-blown and man-made human rights catastrophe,” the statement said. “Expressions of ‘deep concern’ are not enough.”
Additional sources • AP