Israeli cabinet approves plan to take control of Gaza City

During the night of August 7th–8th, Israel’s security cabinet approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security plan aimed at defeating Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to Radio France Internationale plus agencies.

According to the plan, the Israeli army “is preparing to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” as cited by AFP.

It further outlined five principles to end the war: Hamas’ disarmament; the liberation of all hostages, both dead and alive; the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control within the territory; and the formation of an alternative civil administration “neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.”

The statement added that a decisive majority of ministers in the cabinet has also estimated that any alternative plan would neither achieve a victory over Hamas nor bring back the hostages, without providing additional details.

Hamas, still holding 49 hostages, including 27 believed to be dead, had issued a statement on August 7th accusing Netanyahu of sacrificing the hostages’ lives for “his personal interests and his extremist ideological agenda.”

Denouncing what it described as a last-minute reversal in negotiations, despite the proximity of a final deal, Hamas warned that any escalation “will not be a walk in the park and will have a very high and painful cost for Israel.”

In Tel Aviv, demonstrators gathered outside the offices of Likud, Netanyahu’s far-right party, to denounce the government’s military decisions. One protester, identified as Iris, told RFI: “It is really hard to admit that someone who grew up here, alongside us, is ready to sacrifice each one of us to stay in power. As for him… we could all go to hell.” 

Many protesters expressed fears that the new military plan puts hostages’ lives at greater risk and could result in further deaths among Israeli soldiers. “I’m 18, I have to go to the army soon, and I’m scared… I’m so scared. I don’t want to go because, damn, it’s scary,” said one young man outside the Likud office.

Others, like Yossi, pointed to the suffering of “the innocents of Gaza,” holding signs that denounced what they described as ongoing genocide – a rare public stance in Israel.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 86.3% of the Gaza Strip is militarised by Israel and under evacuation orders. The remaining areas, including Khan Younis, parts of Gaza City, and the refugee camps of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, are now the most densely populated.

The UN quickly condemned the Israeli government’s announcement. Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement that the plan “to take complete military control of the occupied Gaza Strip must be immediately halted.”

Türk argued that the operation “contradicts the International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel must end its occupation as soon as possible.” He warned that the escalation would bring “more killings, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction, and atrocious crimes.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose data the UN considers credible, reports that 61,258 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, the vast majority of them civilians. Around 2.4 million Palestinians continue to live under constant bombardment.

Radio France Internationale plus agencies, AFP, Reuters, Maghrebi.org