Found an error?
Report now
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP/dpa/archived image
Keystone
According to his office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the city of Gaza to be taken more quickly than previously planned. The "timetable for the conquest of the last terrorist strongholds and the defeat of Hamas" is to be shortened, his office announced, without giving details. Netanyahu's order had been issued before Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz had approved the army's operational plan for the capture of Gaza.
Katz's office had announced in the morning that the minister had approved the call-up of around 60,000 additional reservists for the capture of Gaza. In addition, the reserve service of around 20,000 more soldiers is to be extended, it said.
Army spokesman Effie Defrin announced in the evening that Israeli forces had already occupied the outskirts of the city of Gaza.
The Israeli security cabinet had approved a plan to take Gaza at the beginning of August. It is still unclear when the ground offensive was to begin. The media reported that the residents of Gaza City were to be evacuated to refugee camps in the center of the sealed-off Gaza Strip by the beginning of October.
20.08.2025, 20:39
