JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at wider military action in devastated Gaza on Tuesday, even as former Israeli army and intelligence chiefs called for an end to the nearly 22-month war.
The new pressure on Netanyahu came as Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll had surpassed 61,000. Health officials reported new deaths of hungry Palestinians seeking food at distribution points. As desperation mounts, the Israeli defense body coordinating aid announced a deal with local merchants to improve aid deliveries.
Among those speaking out were former leaders of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, Mossad spy agency and the military — and also ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak. In a video posted to social media this week, they said far-right members of the government are holding Israel “hostage” in prolonging the conflict.
Netanyahu’s objectives in Gaza are “a fantasy,” Yoram Cohen, former head of Shin Bet, said in the video.
“If anyone imagines that we can reach every terrorist and every pit and every weapon, and in parallel bring our hostages home — I think it is impossible,” he said.
Possible tougher military action
Netanyahu convened his Security Cabinet to direct the military on the war’s next stage, hinting that even tougher action was possible. However, the meeting wrapped up hours later without any announcements about Israel’s plans.
U.S. President Donald Trump, asked by a reporter whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he wasn’t aware of the “suggestion” but that “it’s going to be pretty much up to Israel.”
Netanyahu said his objectives include defeating Hamas, releasing all 50 remaining hostages and ensuring Gaza never again threatens Israel after the Hamas-led 2023 attack sparked the war.
Israeli media reported disagreements between Netanyahu and the army chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, on how to proceed. The reports, citing anonymous officials in Netanyahu’s office, said the prime minister was pushing the army, which controls about three quarters of Gaza, to conquer the entire territory — a step that could endanger hostages, deepen the humanitarian crisis and further isolate Israel internationally.
Zamir reportedly opposes this step and could step down or be pushed out if it is approved. Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment on the reports.
More aid-seekers killed
Health officials in Gaza said Israeli forces opened fire on Tuesday morning toward Palestinians seeking aid and in targeted attacks in central and southern Gaza, killing at least 45 people.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said after previous shootings around aid distribution that it only fired warning shots at people who approached its forces.
The dead include at least 26 people killed in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone where looters and desperate crowds unloaded U.N. aid convoys.
Six people were killed in Teina, near a road leading to a site run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor. Morgue records at the nearby Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, detailed the deaths and locations.
The hospital is part of the Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians but says roughly half the dead from the war have been women and children. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The United Nations and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of casualty data.
Sami Arafat, a father of seven, described the chaos in the Morag Corridor early Tuesday, saying crowds rushed toward a convoy of U.N. aid trucks and Israeli forces fired toward them.
“There are no buildings to shelter us from the shooting,” he said. “The area is all rubble.”
He said looters brandishing knives climbed aboard the trucks first and tore into the aid boxes, taking sugar that could be resold at the market while leaving less expensive rice behind.
Elsewhere in central Gaza, Al-Awda hospital said it received the bodies of six Palestinians who were killed when Israeli troops targeted crowds near another GHF aid distribution site.
The GHF said there were no incidents at its sites Tuesday and that most of the recent violence has been linked to U.N. aid deliveries.
Several hundred Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since May while heading toward food distribution sites, airdropped parcels and aid convoys, according to witnesses, local health officials and the U.N. human rights office. Israel’s military says it only has fired warning shots and disputes the toll.
The Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid, COGAT, said on social media there will be a “gradual and controlled renewal of the entry of goods through the private sector in Gaza.”
It said a limited number of local merchants were approved for the plan.
‘Stained with humiliation and blood’
Mohammed Qassas from Khan Younis said his young children are so hungry that he is forced to storm aid trucks, which rarely reach warehouses these days because they are stopped by hungry crowds.
“How am I supposed to feed them? No one has mercy,” he said Monday. “If we fight, we get the food. If we don’t fight, we don’t get anything.”
It has become routine to see men returning from aid-seeking carrying bodies as well as sacks of flour.
Israel’s blockade and military offensive have made it nearly impossible to safely deliver aid, contributing to the territory’s slide toward famine. Aid groups say Israel’s week-old measures to allow more aid in are far from sufficient.
Families of hostages in Gaza fear starvation affects them too, and blame Hamas.
As international alarm has mounted, several countries have airdropped aid over Gaza. The U.N. and aid groups call such drops costly and dangerous for residents, and say they deliver far less aid than trucks.
‘The entire world is watching’
Palestinians gather daily for funeral prayers.
“We are unarmed people who cannot endure this,” shouted Maryam Abu Hatab in the yard of Nasser hospital.
Ekram Nasr said her son was shot dead while seeking aid near the Morag corridor.
“I had to go alone to carry my son,” she said, tears in her eyes. “I collected the remains of my son like the meat of dogs from the streets.”
“The entire world is watching,” she added. “They are watching our patience, our strength and our faith in God. But we no longer have the power to endure.”
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Shurafa reported from Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
