After a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet in Jerusalem carried on into the early hours of Friday, we have just heard that it has approved a plan to take control of Gaza City.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s office has released a statement detailing the approved plans to occupy Gaza City and “five principles for ending the war,” which it says the cabinet adopted by majority vote.
“The IDF will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” it says, detailing the following principles for “ending the war”:
Disarmament of Hamas.
Return of all hostages – both living and dead.
Demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip.
The existence of an alternative civilian government that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
“An absolute majority of Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan presented to the Cabinet would not achieve the defeat of Hamas or the return of the abductees,” the statement concludes.
Gaza occupation plan shows Netanyahu’s ‘desperation’, says Albanese
Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, says Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement over his plans to take control of the whole of Gaza is “as shocking as the war that has preceded it”.
“This speaks to the desperation of the Israeli PM,” she said in an interview with the BBC News Channel, adding that Netanyahu “resorts to continuous violations of international law”.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the UN’s top court – has previously ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is against international law. Israel denies any violations.
“It’s hard to imagine how much harm he [Netanyahu] can do because they [Gazans] are beyond the brink of collapse,” Albanese says.
“We have seen the complete failure of humanitarian protection, which demands that civilians are spared from the consequences of war.”
Gaza takeover plan is ‘huge gamble’ – former UK national security adviser
The UK’s former national security adviser tells the BBC that Benjamin Netanyahu may feel it’s “now or never” to change the security situation in the Middle East.
Speaking on Radio 4’s PM programme Mark Lyall Grant says it’s a “huge military and political gamble” for Netanyahu – referring to the risk posed to Israeli soldiers and the living hostages – as he adds that it’s not realistic to think Arab forces will want to govern the territory after an Israeli takeover.
Earlier, Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel wants to hand Gaza to “Arab forces that will govern it properly”.
Asked about whether the plan abides by international law, Lyall Grant says: “I think it’s fair to say Israel has already been in violation of international law over the last 22 months in terms of the collective punishment, restrictions on humanitarian aid – arguably using food as a weapon – but obviously the forcible removing of or relocation of civilians is in itself against international law.
“If you are moving one million people semi-permanently from northern Gaza into the south, that is in violation of international law. There’s no question about that.”
‘There are no means of survival’ – Palestinians react to Netanyahu’s plans
“It’s like there’s nothing left to occupy in the first place,” Palestinian Mahmoud al-Qurashli tells Reuters news agency from Gaza City.
Reacting to Netanyahu’s plans for full control of the region, he says: “Practically all of Gaza has been squeezed into the western part of Gaza City, and that’s all that’s left. At this point, for the people, there’s no difference anymore – whether he occupies it or not.”
Raed Abu Mohammed says that they have been living in tents for five months, and they have begun to settle a bit: “Yes, there’s suffering, yes, there’s death – yes. But we’re still clinging to life, clinging to life. Israel isn’t killing Hamas. Israel is killing civilians, children, women.”
“There are no means of survival, no signs of life,” Ismail al-Shawish says.
He says the basic necessities don’t exist, and things in Gaza are “going from bad to worse”.
He wants a ceasefire, not occupation, for “peace and safety”.
