File Photo: Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz gesture speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Office in Budapest, Hungary. AFP
“The gates of hell will soon open" on Hamas in Gaza — "until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war,” Katz wrote in a post on X, shortly after the UN officially declared famine in Gaza suffering under Israel’s blockade.
His remarks come some days after Cairo and Doha confirmed that Hamas has accepted a 60-day truce-prisoner exchange proposal that Israel previously agreed to.
Qatar said the latest proposal was “almost identical” to an earlier version approved by Israel, while Egypt said Monday that “the ball is now in its (Israel’s) court”.
The proposal outlines a phased deal involving captive and prisoner exchanges and a pullback of Israeli troops, while talks continue on a longer-term ceasefire and permanent end to the war.
Earlier this year, Israeli leaders rejected similar terms amid divisions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and strong right-wing backing for continuing the war, deporting Palestinians from Gaza, and expanding settlements in the strip.
On Wednesday, Hamas lambasted the plans to take control of Gaza City, saying in a statement it showed its “blatant disregard” for efforts to broker a ceasefire and captive release deal.
Israel’s invasion of Gaza City could start within days.
Gaza City shelters hundreds of thousands of civilians and still houses some of the strip’s critical infrastructure and health facilities. Aid groups and international leaders warn that it would worsen Gaza’s famine under Israel’s blockade.
Israel says it has issued evacuation orders for some 1 million civilians in Gaza’s largest city. Such orders have been condemned as serving Israeli goals rather than Palestinian safety. Many Palestinians say repeated displacement is pointless, since nowhere in Gaza is safe.
At the same time, medical groups warn Israel’s calls to move patients south are unworkable, with no facilities to receive them.
Gaza’s health ministry on Friday rejected the Israeli order to evacuate medical personnel and patients from Al-Sifa Medical Complex in Gaza City - the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.
“Such a step would deprive more than one million people of their right to medical treatment and expose the lives of residents, patients, and the wounded to imminent danger,” it warned.
But Netanyahu has argued that invading Gaza City is the surest way to achieve Israel’s stated goals of freeing captives and defeating Hamas.
“These two things — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages — go hand in hand,” Netanyahu said on Thursday while touring a command centre near southern Israel.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed at least 62,122 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which added on Thursday that the number of deaths from starvation under Israel’s five-month blockade has risen to 271, including 112 children.
As many as 83 percent of Palestinian casualties in Gaza could be civilians, classified Israeli data suggests.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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