Ahead of intensified Gaza operation, IDF issues tens of thousands of call-ups to reserve soldiers

Amid concerns in Israel that hostage-ceasefire negotiations have stalled, perhaps permanently, the IDF announced on Saturday evening that it was issuing tens of thousands of call-up orders to reservists ahead of a significant escalation and expansion of military operations in the Gaza Strip. 

The first call-up orders will be sent to reservists on Sunday, and the fighting will likely expand in stages. According to a report from Channel 12, the political leadership prefers to move in stages to leave room for possible development in the negotiations. 

A security source told the news channel that the intensification of fighting is intended to bring Hamas to the negotiating table in order to free more hostages. 

“This is a broad move to defeat Hamas, where we do not for a moment forget the hostages, and where everything is done in coordination with the hostages headquarters headed by Nitzan Alon," the source explained. 

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir recently said, ”The two missions [defeating Hamas and freeing the hostages] are intertwined, and we will increase our activity until we complete both.” 

The Security Cabinet is expected to meet on Sunday to vote on the expansion of military operations in Gaza, which were already approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The military believes that the steadily intensifying pressure in the Gaza Strip has been effective in degrading Hamas’s capabilities, despite the group’s continued refusal to agree to any of Israel’s terms in the ongoing negotiations.

However, despite the apparent success of the IDF’s maneuvers in Gaza since the end of the ceasefire, Hamas still retains significant capabilities to inflict harm on the soldiers. This was seen in the killing of two soldiers over the weekend in a booby-trapped building in Rafah. 

The incident is still under military investigation, but it appears that Golani Brigade soldiers had entered a building where the explosion occurred in a tunnel shaft. Later in the day, Yahalom combat engineering soldiers began scanning the site to begin a demolition when there was a sudden explosion, killing Captain Noam Ravid and Staff Sergeant Yaly Seror, and wounding a third Yahalom soldier. 

While the IDF is sending out tens of thousands of call-ups, the military affirmed that it plans on incrementally increasing pressure on Hamas, and that not all of the reservists will be sent to Gaza. 

The IDF also assessed that Hamas is preserving its best fighters in Gaza City ahead of a renewal of a large-scale assault aimed at toppling Hamas and removing it from power. At present, the military reports that the terrorists it encounters are few in number and primarily operating as a decentralized guerrilla force.

According to Hebrew media reports, the IDF is also planning to change the method of humanitarian aid distribution in the Strip once the government decides to permit additional aid into the enclave.

Under the new plan, international organizations would distribute aid directly to Gaza civilians in areas controlled by the Israeli military, preventing it from reaching Hamas. The aid will reportedly be packaged in family-sized boxes containing supplies sufficient for several days.