Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu early on August 8 to “take control” Gaza City.
“The IDF will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, referring to the Israeli Defense Forces.
The statement described the adopted plan as one aimed at “defeating Hamas,” meaning that there may be operations beyond the one for Gaza City that were approved and not announced.
Notably, the Israeli decision did not use the word “occupy,” and instead referred to “taking control,” due to legal reasons pertaining to Israel’s responsibility for civilian matters in Gaza, according to Israel’s Ynet.
The news website added, however, citing a senior Israel official, that this distinction was superficial, and the decision in fact relates to full military rule. The plan would stop if a hostage deal was reached, according to the report.
The decision came after multiple failed attempts to mediate a ceasefire and amid rising international pressure on Israel over the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It also came despite warnings from the IDF that such an operation could jeopardize the lives of remaining hostages.
It’s worth noting that Netanyahu said on August 7 that Israel intended to take military control of the entire Gaza Strip. However, the primer alleged that the IDF would later hand over the enclave to Arab forces to govern it. He did not elaborate on the governance arrangements or which Arab countries could be involved.
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body,” he said.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid, citing an Israeli official, said on X that the approved plan involved evacuating Palestinian civilians from Gaza City and launching a ground offensive there.
Hamas, which is still running Gaza and showing fierce resistance, described Israel’s decision to take control of Gaza City as a “war crime”.
The group said that Israel’s use of the term “control” instead of “occupation” is an attempt “to evade its legal responsibility for the consequences of its brutal crime against civilians”. It also said that the Israeli cabinet does not care about the fate of the captives: “They realize that expanding the aggression means sacrificing them”.
The Israeli war on Gaza, which broke out after the Hamas-led October 7 surprise attack of 2023, has so far claimed the lives of more than 60,000 Palestinians. Most of the Strip is now destroyed with recent reports describing widespread hunger among more than two millions Palestinians living there.
The upcoming Israeli offensive in Gaza City will make the situation much worse. Still, Hamas will not likely back down. Israel understands this and may be planning for more than just an offensive.
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a true hasbarat would say “blood libel”. but historians know these people worship moloch, a child sacrifice blood cult called judaism inherited from babylon. you see, “judaism” is just babylonian whore rebranded. that’s the truth. talmud was born in the degenerate days of babylon. they think screwing 3 year old girls is not a crime. talmud teaches rabbis, and rabbis are behind religious zionism. we have more to expose about this sickness…..stay tuned
even idf knows this is a trap….ive always said jews are dumb as rocks…you cannot help them. they like imbreeding with their drooling jewish sister whores…”israel” is the end result of 1000s years of that imbreeding. it shows…
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