Israeli troops near Israel’s border fence with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday © Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Israel to call up 60,000 reservists ahead of Gaza City invasion
Plan for renewed assault comes as officials approve controversial settlement project that would split West Bank
James Shotter in Jerusalem Published 20-08-2025 ©FT
Israel will call up about 60,000 reservists in the coming weeks as it pushes ahead with plans to take control of Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday.
The move comes two days after Hamas said it had accepted a proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza, and amid fierce international criticism of Israel’s 22-month offensive, which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian enclave and caused widespread starvation.
It coincided with Israel’s granting of final approval for a controversial settlement project in the so-called E1 area near Jerusalem, which will in effect split the occupied West Bank — which Palestinians seek as the heart of a future state — in two.
A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the first call-up notices for the Gaza City offensive would be sent in the coming days.
In combination with moves to extend the service period of some reservists already on duty, the draft would bring the number of active reservists to 120,000, the official said. Reservists would have to report in September. The official initially said 50,000 reservists would be called up.
The Israeli military has already begun operations in Jabalia and Zeitoun — two districts on the outskirts of Gaza City — as part of its preparations for the offensive, which was approved by Israel’s security cabinet this month. The military’s top brass is due to approve detailed battle plans in the coming days.
Residents of Zeitoun have reported intense shelling in recent days, forcing many of the people sheltering there to flee to other parts of the shattered enclave, much of which Israel’s offensive has reduced to uninhabitable rubble.
The call-ups come as mediators continue their efforts to broker a ceasefire. Diplomats said on Monday that Hamas had accepted a proposal nearly identical to plans originally put forward by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in May.
Witkoff’s plan, which Israel had previously agreed to, calls for a 60-day truce and would involve the freeing of some of the 50 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza — about 20 of whom are still thought to be alive — in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
However, Israel has yet to respond formally to Hamas’s acceptance of the latest plan, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted Israel will not end its offensive until Hamas has been destroyed, arguing that this is the best way to bring home the remaining hostages.
Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — who heads one of two ultranationalist groups on whom Netanyahu depends for his majority — wrote on social media on Monday that Netanyahu “has no mandate to pursue a partial deal”.
The planned intensification of the Israeli offensive — which has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians, according to local officials — comes amid intense international criticism of Israel’s actions in both the enclave and the West Bank.
Several of Israel’s allies, including the UK, France, Canada and Australia, are preparing to recognise a Palestinian state at a UN meeting next month.
In a statement on Wednesday Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s ultranationalist finance minster, cast the approval of the settlement plan for the E1 block as a way of foiling such moves. “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions,” he said.
Israel’s continued offensive in Gaza has also provoked growing criticism within Israel, with hundreds of thousands of people joining mass protests over the weekend calling for a deal to bring home the hostages and end the war. Two Israeli rights groups last month also accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
Israel, which is facing similar allegations in a case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice and backed by nearly 100 other countries, has denied the accusations of genocide and insists that it is complying with international law.
Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, during which militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and took a further 250 hostage.
