Israel's defense minister says Gaza City could be destroyed
- - Israel's defense minister says Gaza City could be destroyed
August 22, 2025 at 1:28 AM
1 / 2Israel Palestinians GazaPeople sit near makeshift burners, used to extract fuel from melted plastic, where displaced Palestinians try to make a living selling homemade fuel along the Sea Road, at dusk in the south of Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s defense minister warned on Friday that Gaza City could be destroyed unless Hamas accepts Israel’s terms, as the country prepares for an expanded offensive in the area.
A day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would authorize the military to seize Gaza City, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that the enclave’s largest city could “turn into Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” areas reduced to rubble earlier in the war.
“The gates of hell will soon open on the heads of Hamas’ murderers and rapists in Gaza — until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war,” Katz wrote in a post on X.
He restated Israel’s cease-fire demands: the release of all hostages and Hamas’ complete disarmament. Hamas has said it would release captives in exchange for ending the war, but rejects disarmament without the creation of a Palestinian state.
Source: “AOL General News”
