The Israeli Defence Ministry on Wednesday said that a plan has been approved to seize control of Gaza City, AFP reported.

A ministry spokesperson told the news agency that the plan had been approved by Defence Minister Israel Katz, adding that he had also authorised the call-up of around 60,000 reservists to carry it out.

Tel Aviv had announced on August 8 its plans to take military control of Gaza City, marking a significant escalation in its nearly two-year-long war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The approval of the plan on Wednesday comes even as mediators who have been pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza await an official response from Tel Aviv on their latest proposal.

Israel’s military offensive in Gaza began in October 2023 after Hamas killed 1,200 persons during its incursion into southern Israel and took hostages. Israel has been carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on Gaza since then, leaving more than 61,000 persons dead.

Tel Aviv has also enforced a severe blockade on humanitarian aid, which UN officials say has brought the population to the verge of famine.

Israel and Hamas have been holding ceasefire talks since July 6. Earlier efforts to reinstate a brief ceasefire that took effect in January had stalled due to major disagreements between the two sides.

The talks are being mediated by neighbouring Egypt, Qatar and the United States.

On Tuesday, Qatar stressed the urgency of brokering a ceasefire in Gaza after Hamas showed a “positive response” to their latest proposal, AP reported.

The latest ceasefire framework proposed an initial 60-day truce, along with a staggered hostage release, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners and provisions allowing for the entry of aid into Gaza, AFP reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet commented on the plan. However, the prime minister had said last week that his country would accept “an agreement in which all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war”.

Ex-civil servants criticise India’s ‘weak’ response

In India, a group of 111 retired civil servants and diplomats on Tuesday criticised New Delhi’s “weak and ambivalent response” over the “genocidal situation” in Gaza perpetrated by Israel.

In an open letter, the Constitutional Conduct Group alleged that Israel was committing grave war crimes in its offensive on Gaza.

The letter also noted that the enforcement of the blockade on aid appeared to be a “deliberate attempt” to starve Palestinians and force their mass expulsion from the “open-air prison” in Gaza into the “empty desert wildernesses further south”.

The retired officials said that there had been calls from within and outside Israel to act against Tel Aviv.

“Tragically for the Palestinians, in the absence of support from the United States and those who champion the values of freedom, democracy and human rights, the world has been powerless to stop this savage collective punishment,” the letter said.

It added that several countries, including Ireland, Norway and Spain, have said that they would recognise the Palestinian state, while others such as the United Kingdom and France have “threatened” to recognise it.

India’s response to “this profound ethical, moral and existential challenge to humanity” has been not just disappointing but cynical, the letter said, adding that the Indian government issued “insincere” expressions of support for the Palestinian cause, while also supporting and sympathising with Israel.

“India’s reluctance to speak out against the merciless collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza, has been deeply disconcerting,” the retired officials said.

The ex-bureaucrats noted that the police in several states have cracked down on small groups protesting against the war. They noted that the Bombay High Court had also in July rejected a petition challenging the police’s refusal to give permission for a rally on Gaza.

“The High Court preached to the petitioners to ‘be patriots’, ‘concentrate on problems affecting India’ and not concern itself with distant problems,” the letter said. “Meanwhile, the government has expressed satisfaction in Parliament, that since it signed a bilateral framework agreement in November 2023, 20,000 Indians have got jobs in Israel that Palestinians lost because of the war.”

The letter urged the Indian government to reclaim its “historic leadership in addressing colonial injustices and consider initiatives to pull Israel back from its genocidal course that may result in one of the blackest chapters in the history of humanity”.

India’s longstanding position has been to support a two-state solution for establishing a sovereign, viable and independent state of Palestine within recognised and mutually agreed borders, living side by side with Israel in peace.

On July 23, India had called for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying that “intermittent pauses in hostilities” amid Israel’s war on the Palestinian territory were inadequate to address the scale of challenges faced by its residents.

However, this came more than a month after India on June 12, along with 19 other countries, abstained from voting on a resolution that the UN General Assembly adopted demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

In December 2023, India was among 153 nations that voted in favour of a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly to demand a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. New Delhi had in July 2024, reiterated its call at the UN for an immediate and complete ceasefire in Gaza.

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