Amid global outcry, Netanyahu announces new Gaza offensive will be even broader

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended a new military offensive in Gaza that’s more sweeping than previously announced, declaring in the face of growing condemnation at home and abroad that Israel “has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas.”

Even as more Israelis express concern over the 22-month war, Netanyahu said the security Cabinet last week instructed the dismantling of Hamas strongholds not only in Gaza City but also in the “central camps” and Muwasi. A source familiar with the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, confirmed that Israel plans the operations in both areas.

The crowded camps — sheltering well over a half a million displaced people, according to the United Nations — had not been part of Israel’s announcement Friday of the offensive in Gaza City. It was unclear why, though Netanyahu faced criticism this weekend within his ruling coalition that targeting Gaza City was not enough. The prime minister said there would be “safe zones,” but such designated areas have been bombed in the past.

Netanyahu’s office late Sunday said he had spoken with President Trump about the plan and thanked him for his “steadfast support.”

Hours after Netanyahu spoke, broadcaster Al Jazeera announced that one of its correspondents, Anas al-Sharif, was killed along with other journalists in an Israeli strike in Gaza City. Israel confirmed his death.

As authorities were reporting this weekend that two more Palestinian children had died of malnutrition-related deaths — bringing their toll in Gaza to 100 since the start of the war — the Israeli prime minister asserted Sunday that there is “no starvation in Gaza,” dismissing the notion as a “global campaign of lies.”

Netanyahu spoke to foreign media just before an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which has been a platform for outrage but little action on the war.

“Our goal is not to occupy Gaza, our goal is to free Gaza,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said there is a “fairly short timetable” for next steps in Gaza, but didn’t give specifics. The goals, he said, include demilitarizing the territory, the Israeli military having “overriding security control” there and a non-Israeli civilian administration in charge.

Israel wants to increase the number of aid distribution sites, he said, but in a later briefing to local media, he asserted: “There is no hunger. There was no hunger. There was a shortage, [but] there was certainly no policy of starvation.”

Netanyahu also said he has directed Israel’s military to “bring in more foreign journalists” — which would be a striking development, as they haven’t been allowed into the Gaza Strip beyond trips with the military during the war.

He again blamed many of Gaza’s problems on the militant group Hamas, including civilian deaths, destruction and aid shortages. “Hamas still has thousands of armed terrorists,” he said, adding that Palestinians are “begging” to be freed from them.

Hamas responded with a lengthy statement that summed up Netanyahu’s remarks as “blatant lies.”

Late Sunday, heavy bombardment was reported in Gaza City. Shortly before midnight, Al Jazeera said Al-Sharif was killed in a strike along with other journalists and a driver, citing the director of Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Israel’s military confirmed it, saying that Al-Sharif had “posed as a journalist” and alleging he was with Hamas. The Committee to Protect Journalists last month had said it was gravely concerned for his safety and that he was being “targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign.”

At Sunday’s U.N. Security Council meeting, the United States defended Israel, saying it has the right to decide what’s best for its security. It called allegations of genocide in Gaza false.

The U.S. has veto power on the Security Council and can block proposed actions there.

Other council members, and U.N. officials, expressed alarm. China said Israel’s campaign amounted to the “collective punishment” of the people of Gaza, which it called unacceptable. Russia warned against a “reckless intensification of hostilities.”

“This is no longer a looming hunger crisis; this is starvation,” said Ramesh Rajasingham with the U.N. humanitarian office. “Humanitarian conditions are beyond horrific. We have frankly run out of words to describe it.”

Israel faces growing unrest even among its closest allies. Netanyahu said Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany had “buckled under” the growing international criticism by stopping exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza. Merz told public broadcaster ARD that Germany and Israel were talking “very critically” but Berlin’s overall policy of friendship hadn’t changed.

At least 31 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in Gaza in the last 24 hours, hospitals and witnesses said Sunday.

The Associated Press spoke to witnesses of gunfire in the Israeli-controlled Morag and Netzarim corridors and the Teina area in the south. All accused Israeli forces of firing at crowds trying to reach food distributions or waiting for convoys.

Fifteen people were killed while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor that separates the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Yunis, according to Nasser Hospital.

The situation is a “death trap,” said Jamal al-Laweh, who said Israeli forces opened fire there. “But I have no other choice to feed the kids.”

Six people were killed while waiting for aid in northern Gaza near the Zikim crossing, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and Shifa Hospital.

In central Gaza, witnesses said they heard warning shots before the fire was aimed toward crowds trying to reach a food distribution site operated by the Israeli-backed and U.S.-funded Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The AP could not independently confirm who fired the shots. Al-Awda Hospital in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp said four people were killed by Israeli gunfire.

“First, it was in the air, then they started to fire at the people,” said Sayed Awda, who waited hundreds of yards from the aid site.

Six other aid seekers were killed while trying to reach Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites in Khan Yunis and Rafah, Nasser Hospital said.

The foundation sites opened in May as an alternative to the U.N.-run aid system, but their early operations have been marred by deaths and chaos, with aid seekers coming under gunfire near routes leading to the sites.

Responding to AP inquiries, the foundation’s media office said: “There were no incidents at or near our sites today and these incidents appear to be linked to crowds trying to loot aid convoy.”

Israel’s military said there were no incidents involving its troops near central Gaza aid sites.

Seven people were killed in airstrikes, local hospitals said — three near the fishermen’s port in Gaza City, and two adults and two children in a strike that hit a tent in Khan Yunis. Israel’s military did not immediately comment on the strikes, but has accused Hamas of operating from civilian areas.

Israel’s air and ground offensive has displaced most of Gaza’s population and pushed the territory toward famine. Two more Palestinian children died of malnutrition-related causes on Saturday, authorities said, bringing the toll among children to 100 since the war began.

A total of 117 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since late June, when the Health Ministry started to count that age category, it said.

The hunger toll is in addition to the ministry’s war toll of 61,400 Gazans. The Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, doesn’t distinguish between fighters or civilians in its tally, but says around half of the dead have been women and children. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties.

Hostages’ relatives have urged a labor strike in Israel next week over the plans to expand military operations, fearing it will endanger their loved ones. Fifty hostages remain after being taken in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war. Twenty are believed to be alive.

Dozens of people sat outside the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem to protest Israel’s offensive. “I think it’s a horrible decision. It’s like deciding that we don’t want [hostages] alive anymore,” said one person, Milly Rothschild.

Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday night in what local media called one of the largest antigovernment protests in months.

Lishay Miran-Lavi, whose husband, Omri, is among the hostages, appealed to Trump and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff to halt the fighting.

“The decision to send the army deeper into Gaza is a danger to my husband, Omri. But we can still stop this disaster,” she said.

Also Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz toured the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where about 40,000 Palestinians have been driven from their homes this year in the West Bank’s largest displacement since Israel captured the territory in 1967.

Israel says the operations are needed to stamp out militancy, as violence by all sides has surged since the war in Gaza began.

Katz said the military would remain in the area’s refugee camps at least until the end of the year, and said the number of warnings about attacks against Israelis in the West Bank had decreased by 80% since the operation began in January.

Shurafa, Metz and Magdy write for the Associated Press and reported from Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and Cairo, respectively. AP writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.