Israel’s military said Friday that it had launched the “initial stages” of a planned offensive to seize Gaza City, declaring the Palestinian territory’s biggest population center a “dangerous combat zone.” The Israel Defense Forces said it was suspending daily “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting in Gaza City, which have allowed food and other aid materials to be brought in during the daylight hours.
As Israel pressed ahead with its planned expansion of the war against Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that the body of Ilan Weiss — among the 251 people taken hostage during the Hamas-led, Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that sparked the war in Gaza — had been recovered from the enclave.
Netanyahu said the body of a second hostage had also been returned to Israel and was being identified by forensic teams.
Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, had made their plans to push into Gaza City clear for weeks. The expansion of the war, which was announced along with an expanded call-up of 60,000 Israeli military reservists, drew international condemnation from the moment it was announced.
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France, Britain, Canada and Australia have criticized Netanyahu’s plans for the sweeping offensive in Gaza City, and they have all recently announced that they will recognize a Palestinian state.
Tens of thousands of Israeli citizens have also taken to the streets to protest and demand that Netanyahu strike a deal with Hamas to secure the safe release of the remaining hostages, about 50 of whom remain in Gaza, and 20 of whom are still believed to be alive.
Hostage family members were among the leaders of a movement that organized a one-day nationwide strike on Aug. 16, which coincided with more street protests featuring chants of: “We don’t win a war over the bodies of hostages.”
Many hostage families have voiced concern that the surviving hostages’ lives could be endangered by ramped-up military operations in Gaza’s biggest city.
Netanyahu and his military have been unmoved, however.
“We will intensify our strikes until we bring back all the kidnapped hostages and dismantle Hamas,” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Friday.
Netanyahu’s most important ally, President Trump, has pushed for an end to the war, but focused largely on what comes after the fighting. He has not explicitly backed or voiced objection to an expanded military assault on Gaza City.
Images posted on social media Friday morning appeared to show large explosions in the vicinity of Gaza City.
The area has been harboring hundreds of thousands of displaced people who have fled fighting — and now famine, which Israel denies — elsewhere in the decimated Palestinian enclave.
Dawoud Abu Alkas/REUTERS 
The city is also home to some of the little critical infrastructure and health facilities still standing in Gaza. On Wednesday, the IDF warned people in Gaza City to leave and head further south, calling an evacuation of the city “inevitable.”
As the war in Gaza nears the end of its second full year, international pressure has been growing on Netanyahu’s government to bring an end to the conflict and allow in more humanitarian aid.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, Israel’s war in Gaza has killed 63,025 people. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its figures.
Israel disputes the death toll reported by Palestinian officials, but the United Nations says it is the most reliable count available as Israel has not permitted independent journalists to enter Gaza and operate freely since the war began.
Tucker Reals
contributed to this report.
