Netanyahu vows to take Gaza City ‘quickly’ as IDF kills journalists in strike

TEL AVIV, – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his plans to take over key areas of the Gaza Strip, saying Israel would move “quickly” to evacuate and then seize Gaza City, where doctors and journalists said late Sunday that an Israeli strike targeted and killed six journalists, including two correspondents for Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language news channel.

The strike, which hit just before midnight, targeted a tent housing the journalists outside the gate of al-Shifa Hospital, according to the facility’s director, Mohamed Abu Salmiya. It came several hours after Netanyahu, at a news conference in Jerusalem, told reporters that Israel would begin its operation “by first enabling the civilian population to safely leave the combat areas to designated safe zones.”

Abu Salmiya said two prominent reporters – Anas al-Sharif, 28, and Mohammed Qureiqa, 31 – were among the dead. Two Al Jazeera cameramen, Ibrahim Thaher and Mohammed Noufal, were also killed, according to the network.

The Israeli military issued a statement confirming the strike and accused Sharif of serving as the head of a Hamas “terrorist cell.” Sharif had reported from northern Gaza for the network for the last 22 months. In July, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “gravely worried” about his safety, after the Israeli military targeted him in “smear campaign.”

Earlier, in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel’s “goal is not to occupy Gaza.” But it would maintain “overriding security responsibility” for the enclave, including its demilitarization and the establishment of a security zone along its border with Israel. At the same time, Israel would support a “civilian administration” there, but that would exclude both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which is based in Ramallah, located in the West Bank.

Netanyahu’s security cabinet had approved a plan early Friday to expand military operations in the territory, but stopped short of backing the prime minister’s earlier proposal for full occupation. The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, opposed the prime minister’s push to capture and hold indefinitely the few areas outside of Israel’s control. He cited threats to the 20 Israeli hostages authorities presume are still alive, as well as the strain the campaign would put on Israel’s exhausted reservists.

The Israel Defense Forces – which launched its campaign after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023 – says it already controls 75 % of Gaza, where nearly 2 million Palestinians have been displaced multiple times since the start of the war. The destruction is so vast that many residents are living in crowded tent camps or in the rubble of their homes.

When asked about the potential length of the operation, Netanyahu said, “the timeline that we set for the action is fairly quickly.” In a report Sunday, Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, cited defense officials as saying the effort to seize control of Gaza City would take at least six months.

The military operation would require the mass forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza City – the territory’s largest city – although it is unclear how many residents remain. But unlike similar operations in the early months of the war, this campaign is drawing fierce criticism from within Israel.

“The forced displacement of all residents of Gaza City, which is the point of departure underpinning the plan that was approved by the security cabinet, simply isn’t going to happen,” Israeli commentator, Sever Plocker, wrote Sunday in Israel’s largest daily, Yedioth Ahronoth.

“Anyone who envisions them ‘flowing’ out doesn’t understand where they are living, doesn’t know a thing about the laws of warfare, doesn’t know a thing about Jewish morality and doesn’t understand just how different our situation has become,” Plocker wrote, referring to the growing condemnation of Israel from some of its closest allies.

In recent weeks, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has sharply deteriorated, with a rising number of deaths from malnutrition and starvation. An Israeli blockade on all food to Gaza was partially lifted in May, with an increase in aid deliveries last month, but humanitarian workers and hunger experts say it is not enough to reverse the famine that is now unfolding.

On Sunday, the Gaza Health Ministry said it recorded another five deaths from malnutrition, bringing the total number of such deaths to 217, including 100 children. In a statement, the humanitarian organization Save the Children called the toll “a devastating milestone that shames the world.”

“What kind of a world have we built to let at least 100 children be starved to death while the food, water and medical supplies to save them wait just miles away at a border crossing?” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe.

Netanyahu rebuffed accusations Sunday that Israel was deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza and claimed some of the recent images of malnourished children in Gaza were “fake” because they had underlying conditions. “But, there was a problem of deprivation, no question about it,” Netanyahu added.

Doctors have said the fact that some starving children have chronic diseases makes their treatment all the more urgent.

“This was a wholly predictable and avoidable tragedy that humanitarian organizations have been warning about for months,” Alhendawi said. “We knew this would happen; no one can say they didn’t.”