The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday night that it was sending out tens of thousands of call-up orders to reservists, as the military was set to significantly expand its offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The tens of thousands of reservists being called up would begin to show up in the military in the coming week, according to the IDF. The reservists have likely been called up multiple times already during the war.
On Friday, during a security consultation, the military presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with its planned staged offensive in Gaza, which will require substantial mobilization.
Israel’s security cabinet was slated to convene on Sunday so ministers could vote to approve the military plans authorized by Netanyahu.
Currently, three IDF divisions are operating in Gaza, in an offensive that the military has said is aimed at pressuring Hamas back into a hostage deal, and not destroying the terror group.
Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that if no hostage deal is reached soon, the military would launch a major offensive aimed at defeating Hamas. The intensified offensive would see the IDF operating in new areas of the Strip.
The military said that the pressure on Hamas would increase incrementally, and the call-up of the reservists was part of its staged plans, because the terror group has been refusing to agree to a deal.
The reservists may not be sent to Gaza, but rather to other fronts — Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank — and swap out members of the standing army who will be deployed to the Strip.
The IDF has said that calling up reservists was being carried out solely out of “practical and operational interests,” amid mounting letters signed by veterans calling for a hostage deal with Hamas, even if it comes at the cost of ending the war.
The military has assessed that Hamas still has organized forces in some areas of the Gaza Strip, especially in its center, where the terror group is working to preserve its “quality” fighters, alongside the recruitment of teenagers.
In areas where the IDF is operating — including Rafah and the Strip’s far north — Hamas is operating as a decentralized guerrilla group, according to the military’s assessments.
The IDF has said that it sees the return of the 59 hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip as the most important goal of the war, with defeating the terror group in second place, after Netanyahu declared that “victory” over the terror group was the most important aim.
More than 52,400 Palestinians have been killed since the war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry.
The figures cannot be independently verified, and do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
The Hamas-led attack saw thousands of terrorists storm southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza, including the body of a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 war there.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 414. The toll includes two police officers and two Defense Ministry civilian contractors.