Israel starts calling up reservists amid push to widen Gaza City offensive

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel began mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists and repeated evacuation warnings Tuesday as part of its plan to widen its offensive in Gaza City, which has sparked opposition domestically and condemnation abroad.

The call-up, which was announced last month, comes as ground and air forces press forward and pursue more targets in northern and central Gaza, striking parts of Zeitoun and Shijaiyah — two western Gaza City neighborhoods that Israeli forces have repeatedly invaded during the nearly two-year war against Hamas militants.

Zeitoun, once Gaza City’s largest neighborhood with markets, schools and clinics, has been transformed over the last month, with streets being emptied and buildings reduced to rubble as it becomes what Israel’s military last week called a “ dangerous combat zone.”

Israel says Gaza City is still a militant stronghold where Hamas has a vast tunnel network, despite multiple incursions throughout the war. It’s also one of the last refuges in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians are sheltering, facing the twin threats of combat and famine.

Some reservists are refusing to serve again, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political purposes instead of reaching a hostage deal with Hamas. Netanyahu has said that the war will continue until all the hostages are returned and Hamas surrenders.

“We are facing the decisive stage,” Netanyahu said in a video statement addressed to the troops. “With God’s help, together we will win.”

Deadly strikes in Gaza City

Israel on Tuesday repeated earlier warnings to Palestinians who have remained in Gaza City, unconvinced that another displacement will keep them safe.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee warned that combat operations would soon be expanding, and that services would be made available in Muwasi, a tent camp south of Gaza City.

At least 47 people have been killed across the Gaza Strip since dawn Tuesday, according to hospitals.

A strike on a residential building in Gaza City’s Tel al Hawa neighborhood killed 15 people, including at least three children, according to Shifa Hospital.

Rescue workers pulled a bloodied infant alive from beneath rubble and then placed the dead under white sheets — a scene that captured the dangers facing Gaza City’s exhausted residents, uprooted time and again and uncertain whether any place is secure.

“We were sleeping safe and sound in our home, and then we suddenly woke up to the sound of banging and rising smoke,” Sana Drimli, a resident of the building, told the Associated Press. “We woke up to see what happened to us and check in on our children and discovered that everyone around us is dead,” she said.

Farther south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis and Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat said that they received 22 people killed by Israeli airstrikes and gunfire near distribution sites and in a corridor frequented by United Nations convoys.

In recent months, more than 2,300 aid seekers have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The toll includes Palestinians who have sought aid in areas where U.N. convoys have been overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds, and where people have been fatally shot while heading to sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor.

Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The foundation said that there were no such incidents linked to its sites or on dedicated routes leading to them.

Reservists protest in Tel Aviv

At least 60,000 reservists will be gradually called up, Israel’s military said last month. It will also extend the service of an additional 20,000 reservists already serving.

In Israel, with a population of less than 10 million, most Jewish men complete compulsory military service and remain in the reserves for at least a decade.

But criticism over the war in Gaza is growing. A number of movements are organizing to encourage reservists to not serve, though it’s unclear how many will refuse the latest call-up.

A recently formed group called Soldiers for the Hostages said that it includes more than 365 soldiers who served earlier in the war, but won’t report for duty if called up again.

“Netanyahu’s ongoing war of aggression needlessly puts our own hostages in danger and has wreaked havoc on the fabric of Israeli society, while at the same time killing, maiming and starving an entire population of Gazan civilians,” Max Kresch, a member of the group, told reporters.

Refusing to show up for reserve duty is an offense that can merit prison time, though only a handful of reserve soldiers who have refused to serve have been put in military imprisonment over the course of the war.

Malnutrition and combat tolls grow

Since the world’s leading authority on food crises declared last month that Gaza City was experiencing famine, malnutrition-related deaths have mounted. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that a total of 185 people died of malnutrition in August — the highest count in months.

A total of 63,633 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the ministry, which says an additional 160,914 people have been wounded as of Tuesday. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half of the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them but hasn’t provided its own toll.

The war started when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 others hostage. Forty-eight hostages are still in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Shurafa, Metz and Khaled write for the Associated Press. Metz reported from Jerusalem and Khaled from Cairo. The AP’s Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.