The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday it will mobilize thousands of reservists in the coming days, in what appears to be an expansion of its offensive in Gaza. <\/p>\n
The move, which comes amid a deadlock in ceasefire talks, follows reports that the IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Friday presented a plan for intensifying pressure on Palestinian militant group Hamas to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s public broadcaster, Kan 11, reported that Zamir\u2019s plan included evacuating Palestinian civilians from northern and central Gaza ahead of expanded operations in those areas, mirroring tactics used earlier this year in southern Gaza\u2019s Rafah. <\/p>\n
Citing unnamed officials, Kan 11 said Netanyahu\u2019s Security Cabinet was expected to approve the plan Sunday. <\/p>\n
The news has prompted concern among families of the 59 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. <\/p>\n
In what it described as \u201can urgent and heartfelt\u201d appeal, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters warned Saturday that \u201cany escalation in the fighting will put the hostages \u2014 both the living and the deceased \u2014 in immediate danger.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of the Israeli public views the return of the hostages as the nation\u2019s highest moral priority,\u201d it added. <\/p>\n
Negotiations to secure the release of the remaining hostages have been stalled for weeks. <\/p>\n
Talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly collapsed. Hamas is demanding a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal, while Israel has accused Hamas of rejecting \u201creasonable offers.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Thursday, Netanyahu said explicitly for the first time that defeating Israel\u2019s enemies was more important than securing the release of the remaining hostages, in remarks that drew a backlash from representatives of their families. Previously, he had described defeating Hamas and securing the release of the hostages as the primary goals of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office announced Saturday it was rescheduling Netanyahu\u2019s May 7-11 visit to Azerbaijan \u201cto a later date.\u201d <\/p>\n
Citing an \u201cintense diplomatic and security schedule,\u201d it said the change came following \u201cdevelopments in Gaza and Syria.\u201d <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday it will mobilize thousands of reservists in the coming days, in what appears to be an expansion of its offensive in Gaza. The move, which comes amid a deadlock in ceasefire talks, follows reports that the IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Friday presented a plan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}