Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered that Gaza City be captured more quickly than previously planned.
Advertisement
The “timeline for conquering the last terrorist strongholds and defeating Hamas” should be shortened, Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday without giving details.
Army spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin announced that Israeli forces had already occupied the outskirts of Gaza City but it is still unclear when the full ground offensive will begin.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz earlier approved the call-up of around 60,000 additional reservists for the capture of Gaza City.
Media reports have said that the residents of what was the largest settlement in Gaza were to be evacuated to refugee camps in the centre of the sealed-off territory by the beginning of October.
Advertisement
“We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City, and already now IDF forces are holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” Defrin told reporters.