Israel to mobilize 60,000 reservists ahead of an expanded Gaza City
operation
[August 21, 2025]
By MELANIE LIDMAN, SAM METZ and SAMY MAGDY
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military said Wednesday it will call up 60,000
reservists ahead of an expanded military operation in Gaza City. Many
residents have chosen to stay despite the danger, fearing nowhere is
safe in a territory facing shortages of food, water and other
necessities.
Calling up extra military reservists is part a plan Defense Minister
Israel Katz approved to begin a new phase of operations in some of
Gaza’s most densely populated areas, the military said. The plan, which
is expected to receive the chief of staff's final approval in the coming
days, also includes extending the service of 20,000 additional
reservists who are already on active duty.
In a country of fewer than 10 million people, the call-up of reservists
is the largest in months and carries economic and political weight. It
comes days after hundreds of thousands of Israelis rallied for a
ceasefire, as negotiators scramble to get Israel and Hamas to agree to
end their 22 months of fighting, and as rights groups warn that an
expanded assault could deepen the crisis in the Gaza Strip, where most
of the roughly 2 million inhabitants have been displaced, many areas
have been reduced to rubble, and the population faces the threat of
famine.
Gaza City operation could begin within days
An Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in
line with military regulations, said troops will operate in parts of
Gaza City where they haven't been deployed yet and where Israel believes
Hamas is still active. Israeli troops in the the city's Zeitoun
neighborhood and in Jabaliya, a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip,
are already preparing the groundwork for the expanded operation, which
could begin within days.
Though the timeline wasn't clear, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
office said Wednesday that Netanyahu “has directed that the timetables
... be shortened” for launching the offensive.
Gaza City is Hamas’ military and governing stronghold, and one of the
last places of refuge in the northern Strip, where hundreds of thousands
are sheltering. Israeli troops will be targeting Hamas’ vast underground
tunnel network there, the official added.
Although Israel has targeted and killed much of Hamas’ senior
leadership, parts of Hamas are actively regrouping and carrying out
attacks, including launching rockets towards Israel, the official said.
Netanyahu has said the war's objectives are to secure the release of
remaining hostages and ensure that Hamas and other militants can never
again threaten Israel.
The planned offensive, announced earlier this month, comes amid
heightened international condemnation of Israel's restrictions on food
and medicine reaching Gaza and fears that many Palestinians will be
forced to flee.
“It’s pretty obvious that it will just create another mass displacement
of people who have been displaced repeatedly since this phase of the
conflict started,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told
reporters.
Associated Press journalists saw small groups heading south from the
city this week, but it's unclear how many others will voluntarily flee.
Some said they would wait to see how events unfold, with many insisting
that nowhere is safe from airstrikes.
“What we’re seeing in Gaza is nothing short of apocalyptic reality for
children, for their families, and for this generation,” Ahmed Alhendawi,
regional director of Save the Children, said in an interview. “The
plight and the struggle of this generation of Gaza is beyond being
described in words.”
Some reservists question the war's goals
The call-up comes amid a growing campaign by exhausted reservists who
accuse the Israeli government of perpetuating the war for political
reasons and failing to bring home the 50 remaining hostages, 20 of whom
are believed to be alive.
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Ultra-Orthodox Jews block a highway during a protest against army
recruitment, in Bnei Brak, Israel, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP
Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The hostages' families and former army and intelligence chiefs have
also expressed opposition to the expanded operation in Gaza City.
Most of the families want an immediate ceasefire and worry that an
expanded assault could imperil the surviving hostages.
Guy Poran, a retired air force pilot who has organized veterans
campaigning to end the war, said many reservists are spent after
repeated tours lasting hundreds of days and resent those who haven't
been called up.
“Even those that are not ideologically against the current war or
the government's new plans don't want to go because of fatigue or
their families or their businesses,” he said.
Hamas-led militants started the war when they attacked Israel on
Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and
abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires
or other deals. Hamas says it will only free the rest in exchange
for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
Israel has yet to respond to a ceasefire proposal
Arab mediators and Hamas said this week that the militant group's
leaders had agreed to the terms of a proposed 60-day ceasefire,
though similar announcements have been made in the past that didn't
lead to a lasting truce.
Egypt and Qatar have said they are waiting for Israel’s response.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, spoke by phone Wednesday
with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss the proposed ceasefire in
the hopes of winning Israel’s acceptance, the Egyptian foreign
ministry said. During the call, Abdelatty urged Israel to “put an
end to this unjust war” by negotiating a comprehensive deal and “to
lay the foundations for a just settlement of the Palestinian cause,”
according to the Egyptian government.
An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they
weren't authorized to speak to the media said Israel is in constant
contact with the mediators in an effort to secure the hostages'
release.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said he will oppose a deal that doesn't
include the “complete defeat of Hamas.”
Also Wednesday, Israel gave final approval to a controversial
settlement project east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. The
development in what’s called E1 would effectively cut the territory
in two. Palestinians and rights groups say it could destroy hopes
for a future Palestinian state.
Gaza's death toll rises
At least 27 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 were wounded
Wednesday at the Zikim crossing in northwestern Gaza as a crowd
rushed toward a U.N. convoy transporting humanitarian aid, according
to health officials.
“The majority of casualties were killed by gunshots fired by the
Israeli troops,” said Fares Awad, head of the Health Ministry’s
ambulance and emergency service in northern Gaza. “The rush toward
the trucks and the stampede killed and injured others.”
The dead included people seeking aid and Palestinians guarding the
convoy, Awad told the AP. The Israeli military did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
More than 62,122 people have been killed during Israel's offensive,
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday. The ministry is part of the
Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The
ministry does not say how many of the dead were civilians or
combatants, but it said women and children make up around half of
them.
In addition, 154 adults have died from malnutrition-related causes
since late June, when the ministry began counting such deaths, and
112 children have died from malnutrition-related causes since the
war began.
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