JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday sought to defend a new military offensive in one of Gaza 's most populated areas amid growing condemnation at home and abroad, declaring that Israel “has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas.”
He spoke to foreign media minutes before an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Gaza. Notably, Netanyahu said he has directed Israel’s military in recent days to “bring in more foreign journalists” — which would be a striking development, as they haven't been allowed into Gaza beyond military embeds during 22 months of war.
“Our goal is not to occupy Gaza, our goal is to free Gaza,” Netanyahu asserted. He also pushed back against what he called a “global campaign of lies” — and said Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, one of Israel's strongest backers, had “buckled under” by announcing that Germany won’t authorize exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza until further notice.
Netanyahu said there is a “fairly short timetable” in mind for next steps in Gaza, but didn't give specifics. The goals there, he said, include demilitarizing the territory, the Israeli military having “overriding security control” there and a non-Israeli civilian administration in charge.
Netanyahu again blamed many of Gaza’s problems on the Hamas militant group, including civilian deaths, destruction and shortages of aid. “Hamas still has thousands of armed terrorists in Gaza," he asserted, adding that Palestinians are “begging” the world to be freed from them.
The prime minister, who has asserted that there is “no starvation in Gaza,” did acknowledge hunger there, saying, “there was a problem with deprivation, no question about it.” Israel wants to increase the number of aid distribution sites, he said, but gave no details.
Netanyahu is to speak later Sunday for the Israeli audience.
More Palestinians killed as they seek aid
At least 26 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals and witnesses said, as families of Israeli hostages called for a general strike to protest Netanyahu’s plans to expand military operations in Gaza City.
Hospital officials said they received bodies from areas where Palestinians were seeking aid, along food convoy routes or near privately run aid distribution points across Gaza.
The dead included 15 killed while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor that separates the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital.
A further six were killed while waiting for aid in northern Gaza near the Zikim crossing, according to Gaza's Health Ministry and Shifa hospital in Gaza City.
In central Gaza, witnesses said they heard warning shots before the fire was aimed toward crowds of aid-seekers 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. 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 meters (yards) from the GHF site.
Six other aid-seekers were killed while trying to reach GHF sites in Khan Younis and Rafah, Nasser hospital said.
The GHF sites opened in May as an alternative to the U.N.-run aid system, but its 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 GHF 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 Israeli troops near central Gaza aid sites.
Seven people were killed in airstrikes, local hospitals said — three people near the fishermen’s port in Gaza City and four people, two of them children, in a strike that hit a tent in Khan Younis. Israel's military did not immediately comment on the strikes, but has accused Hamas of operating from civilian areas.
Hunger death toll among children hits 100
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, 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 ministry started to count that age category, it said.
The toll from hunger isn’t included in the ministry’s death toll of 61,400 Palestinians in the war. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, doesn’t distinguish between fighters or civilians, 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.
Labor strike urged in Israel over looming offensive
Bereaved families and relatives of hostages still held in Gaza urged Israeli companies to declare a general strike next week. Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday night in what local media called one of the largest anti-government protests in recent months.
The families and their supporters fear that expanding the war will endanger their loved ones. Fifty hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war remain in Gaza, with 20 of those believed to be alive.
Lishay Miran-Lavi, whose husband, Omri, is among the hostages, appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump and 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.
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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel.
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Wafaa Shurafa, Sam Metz And Samy Magdy, The Associated Press
