to the Middle East where Israel has
begun its operation to occupy Gaza City.
The Israeli military has designated the
whole area, in their words, a dangerous
combat zone and have suspended temporary
pauses in fighting to allow people to
get aid. It comes as Israel confirmed
today that the body of one hostage and
the remains of another have been
recovered and returned to Israel. Our
Middle East correspondent, Adam Parsons,
joins me now from Jerusalem. This
operation will ramp up Adam and could
take many many weeks.
>> Yes, I think this is going to be a huge
sprawling complicated and long operation
and that is when it gets going in
earnest because what we have seen today
is effectively uh preliminary
operations. That is what the Israeli
military are seeing this as. So even
though we've seen significant
explosions, we've seen a lot of military
hardware being put into place, in their
minds, this hasn't really got going yet.
I think that will be a matter of it
could be a couple of weeks from now, it
could be sooner than that, but they are
still in a position where they are
trying to get themselves ready, but also
to get as many people out of that zone
as possible. So, they have opened what
they would say is a humanitarian
corridor to allow people to go south.
They have uh dropped leaflets. They've
made social media announcements. They're
trying to get as many people from Gaza
City to leave before they start this big
offensive. A problem because there are
over a million people in Gaza City and
they are officially facing a state of
famine. So, these are people who are
exhausted in some cases emaciated. They
have no homes in many cases. I was in
touch with somebody today who has a
large family and said that his house is
simply a pile of rubble. And these are
people who have been shunted around the
Gaza Strip already uh and in a a state
of sometimes in feeblement. They don't
want to move again. So uh the IDF, the
Israeli military say that they will be
going to Gaza. They think that is the
last stronghold of Hamas and they're
expecting a tough fight. They think they
will be having to go into tunnels. Uh
and one source has told me that it will
be weeks, not months, unless of course
there is a ceasefire. And at the moment
that seems unlikely. Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting
that one of the preconditions for that
would be the return of all the hostages
living and dead. Up until today, that
number was 50. 20 alive uh 30 who are
dead. Uh but now we know that uh an
operation carried out by the IDF and
Shinbet has recovered uh one body that
is Elan Weiss. He was killed on October
the 7th, the day when his daughter Noga
and his wife Sheri were were taken uh by
Hamas. They were released in uh November
uh 23. He had two other daughters who
actually escaped being taken but died on
that day and his body has now uh been uh
been taken by that that operation. They
also recovered uh what was initially
described as another body but I am told
it is effectively body parts. uh those
are now being examined but it is
considered that that is not a full body
which is why the Israelis say uh that
they are still awaiting the return of 49
uh hostages. So now that count would now
be 20 who are alive uh and 29 bodies and
we are I think at an important
inflection point. There is still a huge
ground swell in Israel pushing Mr.
Netanyahu to try to negotiate a deal, to
try to bring this war to a a quick end.
But there are also those, particularly
in his cabinet, who are adamant that
Israel needs to see this through. And
that will mean taking Gaza City, an
operation that will involve, well, tens
of thousands of reservists have been
called out and could involve protracted,
difficult, dangerous fighting and the
displacement of a huge number of people.