Occupy

‘This is a death cabinet.’ Thousands of Israelis have marched in Tel Aviv to demand an end to the war on Gaza and the return of captives, a day after Israel’s security cabinet announced plans to occupy Gaza City.

Palestinians in Gaza City are facing the prospect of further displacement with a mixture of fear and defiance after Israel announced plans for a military takeover of the largest city in the enclave, where nearly a million people are currently sheltering.

The city was thrown into chaos on Friday after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans for the takeover, which would involve the forcible removal of Palestinians already displaced multiple times into concentration zones in the south.

“I swear to God that I have faced death like 100 times, so for me, it’s better to die here,” said Ahmed Hirz, who has been displaced along with his family at least eight times since Israel’s war began.

“I will never leave here,” he told Al Jazeera. “We have gone through suffering and starvation and torture and miserable conditions, and our final decision is to die here.”

That sentiment was shared by others who spoke to Al Jazeera. Rajab Khader said he would refuse to move to southern Gaza, to “stay in the streets with dogs and other animals”.

“We must stay in Gaza [City] with our families and loved ones. The Israelis will find nothing except our bodies and our souls,” he said.

Maghzouza Saada, who was previously displaced from northeastern Beit Hanoon, expressed her outrage over being forced to move again, when nowhere in the Strip could be considered safe.

“The south is not safe. Gaza City is not safe, the north is not safe. Where should we go?” she asked. “Do we throw ourselves in the sea?”

‘State of panic’

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said residents had been in a “state of panic” since the early hours of Friday over Israel’s plans to ethnically cleanse the area.

He said that some had started to pack up whatever is left of their belongings. “Not because they know where they are going, but because they don’t want to be caught at the [last] moment. They want to be ready for the time the Israeli military is forcing them out,” said Mahmoud.

“The fear, the concern, the desperation are all on the rise. The Israeli military promises an evacuation zone where people, in fact, end up being killed in these areas,” he added.

Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network, said residents were tired of being forcibly and repeatedly displaced. This time, he said, the prospect of evacuation posed even greater dangers, with hospitals, water facilities and other infrastructure destroyed.

“Now, there is nothing to give to the people, and it’s risky,” he said.

“We have to move elders who cannot walk, and we have patients and injured people who cannot move. We cannot leave them behind, and we cannot give them services.”

Some 900,000 Palestinians at risk

As news of Israel’s controversial escalation sunk in, the military continued its attacks on the vulnerable population, killing at least 36 people since dawn – including at least 21 who were seeking aid – according to medical sources.

Among the day’s attacks, an Israeli drone targeted Gaza’s southern municipality of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis city, killing two Palestinians, according to a source from Nasser Hospital who spoke to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported that one aid seeker was shot dead by Israeli forces in northern Gaza. And at least two people were killed at an aid distribution site run by the controversial United States and Israel-backed GHF, which is slated for expansion under Israel’s new offensive.

Reporting from Jordan’s capital, Amman, Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid said that the notorious foundation, which currently runs four aid sites where over 1,300 Palestinians have been killed while trying to get food, mainly by Israeli forces, would be operating 12 more hubs in the enclave.

Abdel-Hamid said that Israel had not given an “exact timeline” for taking control of Gaza City, but that a ground offensive was in the offing, with “troop movement along Israel’s southern border with Gaza”. Forcibly removing up to 900,000 Palestinians from the city could, she said, take weeks.

In the longer term, military experts have said Israel’s plans – which would see it assume security control over the enclave, establishing an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority – could take years.

‘War crime’

Amid mounting global condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union and a number of countries, it was unclear what Israel’s chief military backer, the US, made of the plans.

US Vice President JD Vance declined to comment on whether his administration had been given prior notification about Israel’s Gaza City plans, but continued to withhold support for a Palestinian state and underlined that “Hamas can’t attack innocent people”.

Experts say Israel would not be able to move forward with its plan to take total military control of Gaza without billions of dollars in backing from Washington. And few have forgotten President Donald Trump’s stated desire to “clean up” Gaza and turn the enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

On Friday, Hamas called Israel’s plans for Gaza City a “war crime”, saying that the decision explained why the country had suddenly withdrawn from the last round of ceasefire negotiations.

In a separate statement on Telegram, it said Palestinians would “resist any occupation or aggressive force”, slamming the US for providing cover for Israel, and accusing the international community of complicity in crimes against the Palestinian people.

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency session on Saturday to discuss Israel’s escalation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested earlier this week that Israel will ‘take control of all Gaza’.

Israel’s security cabinet has approved Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to occupy Gaza City, located in the north of the Palestinian enclave, according to news reports.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has yet to publicly confirm the plan, which is a major escalation in the war-torn Palestinian territory and was first reported by the news site Axios on Friday.

Axios reporter Barak Ravid quoted the prime minister’s office as saying: “The Political-Security Cabinet approved the Prime Minister’s proposal to defeat Hamas. The [Israeli military] will prepare to take over Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones”.

Al Jazeera correspondent in Washington, DC, Shihab Rattansi, said Israel’s move to occupy Gaza has been “telegraphed for several days now”.

“Donald Trump has all but green lit whatever Benjamin Netanyahu wants to do. He said it would be up to the Israelis,” he said

On Thursday, Netanyahu said Israel would “take control of all Gaza” in a television interview with American outlet Fox News.

Netanyahu also said in the interview that Israel doesn’t want to be “a governing body” in Gaza and would hand over responsibility to an unspecified third party.

“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it,” he said.

This followed reports in Israeli media earlier this week that the Israeli leader would imminently announce plans to fully occupy the entirety of the Gaza Strip.

“The decision has been made [to occupy Gaza],” Israel’s Channel 12 news outlet reported on Monday, quoting an unnamed senior official in Netanyahu’s office.

This is a breaking news story. More information to follow soon. 

Israel’s security cabinet is meeting on Thursday to decide on whether to order a complete military takeover of the Gaza Strip – a move the UN says would risk “catastrophic consequences”.

Israeli media say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees this as the only way to destroy Hamas and free hostages still held by the group following the breakdown of ceasefire talks.

Reports, though, say the head of the military and some ministers disagree, amid warnings such a move could be disastrous for the hostages and Palestinian civilians.

Top UN official Miroslav Jenča told the UN Security Council earlier this week that it would be against international law and was a “deeply alarming” prospect.

The Israeli military currently controls about three-quarters of Gaza. The vast majority of Gaza’s population has already been displaced by the war and many more would be uprooted if the army takes over remaining areas.

The security cabinet of top government ministers is scheduled to meet at 18:00 local time (15:00 GMT) on Thursday.

According to Israeli media, tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers would need to be sent to Gaza to carry out the takeover.

Reports say the plan initially focuses on taking full control of Gaza City, relocating its one million residents further south. Forces would also take control of refugee camps in central Gaza and areas where hostages are thought to be held.

Reports say a second offensive would follow weeks later in parallel with a boost in humanitarian aid.

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Fox News there would be a significant scaling up of distribution sites operated by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The GHF has been strongly criticised by the UN and aid agencies, who have accused it of being chaotic and forcing hungry Palestinians to travel long distances in perilous conditions to try to get food.

Hundreds have been shot dead in or around the four sites run by GHF since it began operating in May. The Hamas-run health ministry and witnesses have accused Israeli forces of being responsible. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has denied targeting civilians, saying soldiers have fired warning shots to keep crowds back or in response to threats.

The war has created a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, most of which UN-backed experts say is at the point of famine in terms of food consumption. The territory is also experiencing mass deprivation as a result of heavy restrictions imposed by Israel on what is allowed in – something it says is aimed at weakening Hamas.

Netanyahu is reported to have decided in recent days on the conquest of Gaza, raising tensions with military chiefs.

In a meeting with Netanyahu on Tuesday, the IDF Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, is said to have warned that controlling Gaza could entrap troops and further endanger the hostages. He is reported to have presented an alternative plan involving encircling remaining Hamas strongholds rather than full occupation.

Israeli media say that, despite some misgivings, the security cabinet is expected to approve Netanyahu’s plan.

The families of hostages have reacted with alarm, fearing such a move could push their captives into killing them.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that taking over Gaza was “really up to Israel”. The US has been mediating in indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas for months, but negotiations broke down two weeks ago.

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military offensive in response, which has killed at least 61,158 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

US president’s comments come amid warnings that expanding Israeli operations would be ‘catastrophic’ for Palestinians.

Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has suggested that he will not block possible Israeli plans to take over Gaza.

When asked on Tuesday about reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to occupy the entire Palestinian territory, Trump said he is focused on getting “people fed” in Gaza.

“As far as the rest of it, I really can’t say. That’s going to be pretty much up to Israel,” the US president told reporters.

Washington provides Israel with billions of dollars in military aid annually, assistance that significantly increased following the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.

Israel has used forced displacement orders to squeeze Palestinians into ever-shrinking pockets in Gaza, turning 86 percent of the territory into militarised zones.

But increased military operations in the remaining part of the territory would further endanger the lives of Palestinians, who already endure daily bombardment and Israeli-imposed starvation.

Netanyahu’s purported plans to conquer Gaza have also raises concerns about the safety of the remaining Israeli captives held in the enclave by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

Top United Nations official Miroslav Jenca said on Tuesday that a complete occupation of Gaza would “risk catastrophic consequences”.

“International law is clear in the regard. Gaza is and must remain an integral part of the future Palestinian state,” Jenca told the UN Security Council.

Israel withdrew its forces and settlements from the Palestinian territory in 2005, but legal experts have said that the enclave remained technically under occupation, since the Israeli military continued to control Gaza’s airspace, territorial waters and ports of entry.

Since the start of the war in 2023, right-wing Israeli officials have called for the re-establishment of Israel’s military presence and settlements inside Gaza.

Netanyahu has also suggested that Israel aims to remove all Palestinians from the enclave, in what would amount to ethnic cleansing, a plan that Trump himself echoed in February.

Trump, at the time, proposed clearing Gaza of its people to construct a “riviera of the Middle East” in its stead.

The recent reports about Israel’s intention to expand its ground operations in Gaza come amid growing international outcry over the deadly hunger spreading across the territory.

Israel has blocked nearly all aid from entering Gaza since March, making US-backed GHF sites almost the only places for Palestinians to get food.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been shot by the Israeli military while trying to reach GHF facilities deep inside Israel’s lines of control. Nevertheless, the US has continued to support the organisation, despite international pleas to allow the UN to distribute the aid.

In recent days, Israel has allowed some food trucks and air drops to distribute aid to Gaza, but the assistance is still far from meeting the needs of the population.

The Israeli military has also been accused of targeting aid seekers trying to reach assistance trucks away from GHF sites in northern Gaza.

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his often-repeated claim that the US has provided $60m in aid to Gaza. His administration had provided $30m to GHF.

“As you know, $60m was given by the United States fairly recently to supply food – a lot of food, frankly – for the people of Gaza that are obviously not doing too well with the food,” he told reporters.

“And I know Israel is going to help us with that, in terms of distribution and also money. We also have the Arab states [which] are going to help us with that in terms of the money and possibly distribution.”

Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 61,000 people and flattened most of the territory in what rights groups and UN experts have called a genocide.