Israelis stage 'day of disruption' against reservists call-up for Gaza City operation

Copyright AP Photo

By Gavin Blackburn

Published on 03/09/2025 -

The IDF said last month that Defence Minister Israel Katz had approved plans for an expanded military operation into Gaza City and that 60,000 reservists would be called up to support it.

Protesters took to the streets across Israel for what they called a "day of disruption" on Wednesday, denouncing the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists for an offensive in Gaza City that critics fear could endanger the lives of the hostages still being held by Hamas.

Demonstrators have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of failing to secure a ceasefire deal and intensifying an offensive in Gaza instead.

"We have to take an extreme action so that someone will remember. There’s no such thing as a state abandoning its citizens," Yael Kuperman, a protester near the Knesset, told the Israeli public broadcaster Kan.

The IDF said last month that Defence Minister Israel Katz had approved plans for an expanded military operation into Gaza City and that 60,000 reservists would be called up to support it.

Demonstrators in Jerusalem stage a protest demanding the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, 3 September, 2025 AP Photo

An additional 20,000 reservists currently in the military are also expected to have their service extended.

Israel's military chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, told reservists on Tuesday that their mobilisation comes as the army prepares to "increase and enhance" its operations in Gaza.

"We are preparing for the continuation of the war, the continuation of the fights. We are going to increase and enhance the strikes of our operation, and that is why we called you," he said.

Israel says that Gaza City, the largest city in the Strip, remains a Hamas stronghold and that the group operates a vast underground tunnel network.

Israel has intensified air and ground assaults on the outskirts of Gaza City, particularly in western neighbourhoods where people are being driven to flee toward the coast, according to humanitarian groups that coordinate assistance for the displaced.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the US Independence Day reception in Jerusalem, 13 August, 2025 AP Photo

Site Management Cluster, one such group, said on Wednesday that the prohibitively high cost of moving families, logistical hurdles and a lack of places to go are complicating evacuation efforts.

"Palestinians are also reluctant to move due to the fear of not being able to return or exhaustion from repeated displacement," the group said.

Displaced multiple times

The twin threats of combat and famine are growing more acute for families in Gaza City, Palestinians and aid workers say.

The vast majority of Palestinians have reported being displaced multiple times during the 23-month war.

Hospital officials said on Wednesday that the death toll kept climbing, with 24 people killed in airstrikes overnight into Wednesday.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry also reported on Wednesday that five adults and one child had died from malnutrition over the past day, bringing the total toll to 367, including 131 children throughout the war.

Israeli soldiers drive a tank inside the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, 3 September, 2025 AP Photo

In a letter sent as members of the UK Parliament returned to work in the United Kingdom, three NGOs highlighted how more than 3,700 Palestinians were killed over the 34-day summer break.

The organisations demanded the British government take action, noting famine, a collapse of the health care system and the killing of Mariam Abu Daqqa, a visual journalist who had worked for APnews agency and Doctors Without Borders.

"This is not merely a humanitarian crisis — it is a full-blown and man-made human rights catastrophe," the statement said. "Expressions of 'deep concern' are not enough."

Additional sources • AP

Israel expects Gaza offensive to displace

one million Palestinians

Israel’s planned offensive on Gaza City could displace one million Palestinians, a senior military official said on Wednesday, as Gaza’s civil defence reported dozens killed. In Jerusalem, hundreds of Israelis protested to demand a truce and hostage deal after nearly two years of war.


Issued on: 04/09/2025 -  By: FRANCE 24

Israeli army tanks are positioned in southern Israel, on the border with the Gaza Strip, on September 3, 2025. © Jack GUEZ, AFP

Israel estimates that its imminent offensive on Gaza City would displace one million Palestinians, a senior military official said Wednesday, as Gaza's civil defence reported dozens killed across the territory.

In Jerusalem, meanwhile, hundreds of Israeli protestors took to the streets to call for a truce and hostage release deal after nearly two years of war.

Israel's military has been building up its forces for the planned operation to seize Gaza City, the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre located in its northern part, despite mounting global concern for Palestinian civilians suffering dire humanitarian conditions.

Military chief Eyal Zamir said troops were already "intensifying our combat operations", according to an army statement.

The senior official from COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said "approximately 70,000" Palestinians had already left Gaza's north in recent days, fleeing the Israeli advance.

Briefing journalists on condition of anonymity, the official said Israeli authorities expected "a million people" to flee south, without giving a specific timeframe.

The vast majority of Gaza's more than two million people have been displaced at least once during nearly two years of war.

According to UN estimates, nearly a million people currently live in and around Gaza City, where famine has been declared.

In late August, an Israeli military spokesman said the evacuation of Gaza City was "inevitable", while the Red Cross has warned that any Israeli attempt to do so would be impossible in a safe and dignified manner.

© France 24
02:05

'Waiting 700 days'

Families of hostages held in Gaza and Israeli anti-war groups called for a three-day protest in Jerusalem, culminating on Friday -- day 700 since the Palestinian group Hamas launched its unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023.

The mother of soldier Matan Angrest, who is held in Gaza, appealed to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a news conference.

"I have been waiting 700 days for you to get my child out of hell, and it is in your hands. I could see Matan again tomorrow, with a single decision on your part," said Anat Angrest.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas attack, 47 are still in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

Last month Hamas said it had accepted a new truce proposal that would include phased hostage release.

But as mediators have awaited a formal Israeli response, Netanyahu said the war would only end on Israel's terms as he pushed ahead with plans for the Gaza City offensive.

"Instead of seizing the agreement on the table to reach a comprehensive deal, you choose to continue sacrificing them, abandoning them," Angrest said.

Nira Sharabi, whose husband Yossi was killed in captivity, called for an end to the war.

"Military pressure endangers the lives of the hostages" and "jeopardises the possibility of bringing back the dead" for burial, she said.

During the protests in Jerusalem, a bin was set ablaze near the prime minister's residence, and the fire spread and destroyed a car belonging to a reservist.

Police called it "a red line that has been crossed", while Justice Minister Yariv Levin denounced "terror" on the part of the demonstrators.

© France 24
04:43

Deadly strikes

On the ground, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 62 people on Wednesday.

Umm Abd Abu Al-Jubain told AFP she lost her daughter, son-in-law and several other relatives in a strike on Gaza City.

The bodies were "in pieces, and we pulled this boy out" from under the rubble, she said of her grandson, who survived the strike.

"Your father and mother have gone and left you, my dear," Abu al-Jubain told the bruised boy, holding him in her arms.

As Israel prepares for Gaza City's evacuation, the COGAT official said a planned "humanitarian area" would be set up, extending from a cluster of refugee camps in central Gaza to the southern area of Al-Mawasi and eastwards.

Israel had designated the coastal area of Al-Mawasi a humanitarian zone in the early days of the war, but has repeatedly struck it since.

In mid-August, UN human rights office spokesman Thameen al-Kheetan said Palestinians in Al-Mawasi had "little or no access to essential services and supplies, including food, water, electricity and tents".

Hamas's 2023 attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,746 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)