Israel takes steps for military operation in Gaza City

According to Reuters, Israeli military has taken the first steps of a planned operation to take over Gaza City, Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said on Wednesday.

Following a clash with Hamas south of Khan Younis in the strip on Wednesday, he said, "We will deepen the attack on Hamas in Gaza City, a stronghold of governmental and military terror for the terrorist organization."

Defrin said troops had already begun circling the outskirts of Gaza City and Hamas was now a "battered and bruised" guerrilla force.

"We have begun the preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City, and already now IDF forces are holding the outskirts of Gaza City," he said.

Israel's military called up tens of thousands of reservists on Wednesday in preparation for the expected assault on Gaza City, as the Israeli government considered a new proposal for a ceasefire after nearly two years of war.

The call-up signals Israel is pressing ahead with its plan to seize Gaza's biggest urban centre despite international criticism of an operation likely to force the displacement of many more Palestinians.

But a military official briefing reporters said reserve soldiers would not report for duty until September, an interval that gives mediators some time to bridge gaps between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel over truce terms.

Israeli troops clashed on Wednesday with more than 15 Hamas militants who emerged from tunnel shafts and attacked with gunfire and anti-tank missiles near Khan Younis, south of Gaza City, severely wounding one soldier and lightly wounding two others, an Israeli military official said.

In a statement, Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades confirmed carrying out a raid on Israeli troops southeast of Khan Younis and engaging Israeli troops at point-blank range. It said one fighter blew himself up among the soldiers, causing casualties, during an attack that lasted several hours.

Israel asks all civilians to leave Gaza City

Israel's military on Friday has asked all civilians of Gaza City, more than one million people, to relocate south within 24 hours, as it amassed tanks near the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion.

"Now is a time for war," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday as Israeli warplanes continued pounding Gaza in retaliation for the weekend attacks by Hamas militants that killed more than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians.

The Israeli military said it would operate significantly in Gaza City in the coming days and civilians would only be able to return when another announcement was made.

"Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas terrorists who are using you as human shields," the military said in a statement.

"Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza City inside tunnels underneath houses and inside buildings populated with innocent Gazan civilians."

A Hamas official said the Gaza relocation warning was "fake propaganda" and urged citizens not to fall for it.

The United Nations said it considered it impossible for such a movement of people to take place "without devastating humanitarian consequences."

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan described the UN's response to Israel's early warning to the residents of Gaza as shameful.

Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas militant group which led the attacks on Saturday.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Friday that it struck 750 military targets in northern Gaza overnight, including what it said were Hamas tunnels, military compounds, residences of senior operatives and weapons storage warehouses.

However, a ground invasion of Gaza poses serious risk with Hamas holding scores of hostages kidnapped in the assault.

The Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people, is under siege by Israel, which has pounded Hamas targets in the enclave and killed more than 1,500 Palestinians in retaliatory attacks since the weekend incursions.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said fuel powering emergency generators at hospitals in Gaza could run out within hours and the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned food and fresh water were running dangerously low.

"The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians," ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said.

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said it had relocated its central operations centre and international staff to Gaza's south.

Seeking to build support for its response, Israel's government showed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO defence ministers graphic images of children and civilians they said Hamas had killed in a weekend rampage in Israel.