The Detail: Will NZ move with tide over Gaza?
Photo:
AFP
Nearly two years after the Hamas-led 7 October attack on Israel and the beginning of Israel's military response in Gaza, reaction from both inside and outside Israel suggests public opinion may be shifting.
"I think the images of emaciated children, the accounts that we've had from families of what they've been going through in terms of the near-famine that is affecting parts of Gaza... I think has had a very, very strong effect," says BBC Middle East regional editor Sebastian Usher.
"I think it's had a big effect on public opinion in the West and we talk about the West, because it's the West that essentially is seen as closest to Israel."
This has come to a head in the past few weeks, with leaders of France, the UK and Canada announcing they will recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The shift also seems to be happening within Israel itself, where media has reported on polls showing
more than 74 percent of Israelis
would favour ending the war in exchange for the return of the hostages.
In an open letter earlier this week, some 600 former Israeli security officials asked US President Donald Trump to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war.
Overnight, Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with his security cabinet to discuss a plan to scale up the military invasion of Gaza.
"What we've been seeing is a sense from people who've had the highest positions in the Israeli military, in Mossad, the security agencies, an ex-prime minister, ex-ministers - people who've been major players in Israel politically as part of the elite of the establishment for decades - coming out and saying that the war should end, because there's no point to it anymore," says Usher.
"It's not achieving anything anymore.".
Here in New Zealand, Auckland University law professor Treasa Dunworth says picking apart where our government stands is a bit harder.
"I think it's actually difficult to discern a clear policy, and I think, for a long time, it has tried to stay out of it and not make any comments critical of Israel," she said.
"In the early statements after the original Hamas attack in October 2023, New Zealand was rightly quick to condemn Hamas' actions, but also called for peace, sent humanitarian aid to the agencies that were then still working and able to work in Gaza.
"From that moment on, New Zealand took very much a 'softly softly' approach, although if you trace through the statements and the voting patterns across the general assembly for New Zealand, we did call for peace, we did lament the humanitarian situation."
Last week, New Zealand, along with 27 other countries,
issued a humanitarian statement
calling for an immediate end to the war, which Dunworth said was the first time we'd seen something like this from the 'global north'.
This week,
Newsroom reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
dispatched close to $8 million in aid to Gaza at the end of June - the first funding for the crisis in six months.
The government didn't announce the aid formally, unlike in the past six rounds of funding to the region.
This came after reports of what the United Nations was called 'catastrophic hunger' in Gaza, with
a third of the population going days at a time without food
.
Since May, the UN said more than 1000 people had been killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid and, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, 63 people starved to death last month alone.
In today's episode of
The Detail
, Usher gives explanation and analysis of the current situation in Gaza, and Dunworth describes the steps New Zealand could take in response.
Dunworth said New Zealand could impose a trade embargo on Israel, change our immigration regulations to mirror the 'fast track' we have for Ukrainians and look at the way we share intelligence through the Five Eyes system, "because it is well understood that the United States is sharing intelligence with Israel... and through our involvement with the Five Eyes, all of the intelligence that we gather up from this region is shared automatically with the United States authorities".
She said, while she didn't think recognising a Palestinian state would, in itself, going to make a big difference, she does "think it's an important symbolic move".
"Next month, the General Assembly is going to meet and the Gaza situation is on its agenda, and there is still time for New Zealand to start to engage proactively and ambitiously.
"We could not just arrive in the General Assembly and go along with whatever's happening, but we could proactively shape the contours of that debate."
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail
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RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Benjamin Netanyahu's office says Israel will take control of Gaza City. What would that mean?
By Middle East correspondent Allyson Horn Palestinians inspect the damage after an overnight strike on the Sheikh Radwan Health Centre run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the north of Gaza City on 6 August, 2025. Photo: AFP Israel's security cabinet has approved a plan to take over Gaza City in what will be seen as a major escalation in the war. Before the security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that his goal was to take full control of the Gaza Strip and "liberate" people from Hamas. But while the security cabinet has, for now, only approved a takeover of Gaza City, it is still a major escalation in the war that targets the symbolic heart of Gaza and an area that has been largely untouched through the last 22 months of the war. Here is what we know - and what a military takeover would mean. According to an official statement released by Netanyahu's office shortly after the security cabinet meeting: "The IDF will prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones." It also said the security cabinet had adopted five principles for ending the war, which boil down to: No other official details have been released yet, including when Israel will begin its assault. From a military standpoint, Israel is expected to soon move tanks and troops on the ground into Gaza City and will physically occupy the area to maintain a military presence there. Gaza City is really considered the heart of Gaza, so a military takeover will be highly significant, both symbolically and logistically. It's usually a vibrant city that's densely populated, with lots of shops, cafes and restaurants and almost half of the strip's hospitals, but it's been completely transformed by the war. The population there has become even more condensed, with estimates of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians now packed into the area. There are questions about where those Palestinians would go as Israeli troops advance, given large swathes of areas of the north and south of Gaza City have been demolished by Israel, and are considered uninhabitable, according to aid groups. Gaza City is made up of many small streets and alleyways, which means Israeli troops are likely to be engaged in guerrilla-style warfare fighting against Hamas gunmen there. In other areas of Gaza, Israel has used air strikes to destroy large swathes of buildings and infrastructure and diminish Hamas's capabilities. If this were to happen inside Gaza City, many Palestinians would see this as the destruction of the heart of Gaza. One of the principles the security cabinet agreed on for ending the war was having an alternative civil government that is not Hamas - which governed Gaza - or the Palestinian Authority, which has some governance over the West Bank. But it is unclear who exactly a new ruling authority would be and so far, there have been no concrete proposals. If Israel itself rules Gaza before another party is selected, it would become responsible for providing food, water, medicine and shelter to Gaza's population, according to international law. In his Fox News appearance before the security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel "won't keep" control of Gaza. He also suggested that control of Gaza would pass to a coalition of "Arab forces", although there was no information on who that would be or what that would look like. Shortly after that statement, a Jordanian official rejected the idea and said Arabs would "only support what Palestinians agree and decide on". "Arabs will not be agreeing to Netanyahu's policies nor clean his mess," said the official, quoted by Reuters. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that his goal was to take full control of the Gaza Strip and "liberate" people from Hamas. File picture. Photo: GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP International law states it is illegal for a military occupier to transfer its civilians into the occupied territory - meaning it would be widely seen as illegal for Israel to allow its citizens to build settlements and live inside Gaza. But this practice is already well established in the Occupied West Bank, another Palestinian territory, where more than 500,000 settlers live in settlements and outposts, both of them considered illegal under international law. Israel says its West Bank settlements are legal and cites security justifications for their presence there. And human rights groups fear the expansion of Israel's occupation in Gaza will open the door for Israeli resettlement there. It's been 20 years since Israelis last lived inside Gaza. At the time, about 8000 settlers lived in 21 settlements among the Palestinian population of about 1.4 million. The settlers were removed from the strip by the Israeli government in 2005 after political leaders decided to "disengage" from Gaza. But multiple senior politicians in the current Israeli government have repeatedly called for the resettlement of Gaza, including the country's national security minister. The appetite among the Israeli public for expanding this war is already very low. Multiple polls across Israel have repeatedly shown the majority of Israelis want this war to end and a ceasefire and hostage release deal to be reached. And contrary to the views of the government, the vast majority of hostage families believe pushing into the area currently not occupied by Israel will jeopardise the safety of the captives. They cite an example from one year ago where six Israeli hostages were killed by Hamas as the IDF advanced through the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Hostage families say they fear their loved ones will also be killed - either by Hamas or by the military - if the IDF moves into Gaza City and its surrounds. They've urged the government to reach a hostage-release and ceasefire deal instead. The IDF's chief of staff has reportedly also warned the expansion would entrap troops and further endanger hostages. In Gaza, news of Netanyahu's proposal quickly spread through the bombed-out streets of the strip, even before the security cabinet meeting got underway. "I live in a tent, dumped in the street, but the upcoming situation is going to be worse because of what they are capable of implementing," 35-year-old Jaber Abu Odeh told the ABC. Adel Shomali, 40, said the prospect of being forced to move again "breaks you". "It's enough the displacement from the beginning of the war until the last ceasefire, and we were displaced from Gaza City to the south and then back to Gaza City," he said. "There is fear from this situation. God willing, it won't happen." Other Gazans, including the major of Rafah, Ahmed Al Sufi, called on the world to end the war and "find a real solution for the Palestinian people". "People are now trapped in a narrow coastal strip in western Gaza, western Khan Younis, and the western parts of the central region - specifically in the Al-Mawasi area, which lacks even the most basic necessities of life," he said. "If the army enters these remaining areas, I honestly don't know where people can go. There will be nowhere left. The situation would become absolutely catastrophic." - ABC
NZ Herald
5 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Gaza City the initial focus of takeover plan approved against recommendations of the Israeli military
It is likely to take the military days, at least, to call up reserve forces, carry out troop deployments for a push into Gaza City and allow time for the forced evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the new areas of combat. The Cabinet also approved five principles for ending the war, including: Disarming of Hamas; Return of all 50 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive; Demilitarisation of Gaza; Israeli security control over the enclave; Establishment of an alternative civilian administration there that involves neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, the rival, Western-backed body that exercises limited control in parts of the occupied West Bank. The Israeli military has said that it has already conquered about 75% of Gaza. The coastal strip stretching from Gaza City in the north to Khan Younis in the south is the main area outside Israeli control. Many of the two million Palestinians in Gaza, including those displaced from their homes in the territory, have squeezed into tents, makeshift shelters and apartments in those areas. Cartons of humanitarian aid are dropped by parachute from a plane flying over Gaza City today. Photo / Saher Alghorra, The New York Times Netanyahu said earlier that Israel planned to take control of all of Gaza, bucking the advice of the Israeli military and warnings that expanding operations could endanger the hostages being held there and kill more Palestinian civilians. He made the comments in an interview with Fox News before the security Cabinet meeting. They came as talks to achieve a ceasefire and the release of the hostages have hit an impasse, with Israeli and Hamas officials blaming each other for the deadlock. When asked whether Israel would take over all of Gaza, he responded: 'We intend to'. Netanyahu said the move would 'assure our security', remove Hamas from power and enable the transfer of the civilian administration of Gaza to another party. 'We want to liberate ourselves and the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas,' he said in an excerpt from the interview, without providing details on any planned operation. The Prime Minister, however, suggested Israel was not interested in maintaining permanent control over the entire enclave. 'We don't want to keep it,' he added. 'We don't want to govern it. We don't want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces.' In the excerpt published by Fox News, Netanyahu offered few specifics about his plan. Some analysts have said that he has threatened to widen the offensive to compel Hamas to offer concessions in the ceasefire negotiations. Hamas, in a statement today, said Netanyahu's comments 'represent a clear reversal of the course of negotiations and clearly reveal the true motives behind his withdrawal from the final round'. Israel's expansion of military action would also be in defiance of many other countries urging an end to the nearly two-year war in Gaza. In recent weeks, Israel has come under growing pressure from some long-standing allies to do more to address a hunger crisis in the enclave. The Israeli military's Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir, has pushed back against the plan, according to four Israeli security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues. He has shared concerns about the exhaustion and fitness of reservists and about the military becoming responsible for governing millions of Palestinians, they said. The military leadership would prefer a new ceasefire instead of ramping up fighting, according to three of the officials. A majority of the ministers believed that the alternative proposals put forward by the military would not result in the defeat of Hamas or the release of the hostages, according to the statement from Netanyahu's office. In earlier stages of the war, Netanyahu and the Israeli military clashed about strategy. The latest episode appeared to be the most significant showdown since the Government appointed Zamir in February. At the time, members of the governing coalition hoped that he would be more closely aligned with their approach than his predecessor. In recent days, however, he has been criticised by some supporters of the Government. The Israeli military released comments made by Zamir today in which he said 'the culture of debate' was 'a vital component of the IDF's overall culture — both internally and externally', referring to the Israel Defence Forces. 'We will continue to express our position without fear,' he added. 'That is the expectation we have of our commanders as well. The responsibility lies here, at this very table.' The military believes it could seize the remaining parts of Gaza within months, but setting up a system similar to the one it oversees in the Israeli-occupied West Bank would require up to five years of sustained combat, three of the security officials said. Earlier this week Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the Israeli military would carry out any decision made by the security cabinet. Palestinians collect humanitarian aid that was dropped by parachute from planes flying over Gaza City today. Photo / Saher Alghorra, The New York Times Members of Israel's opposition and the families of the hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza have cautioned against expanding the military operation. 'Conquering Gaza is a bad operational idea, a bad moral idea, and a bad economic idea,' Yair Lapid, the leader of the parliamentary opposition, told reporters yesterday after a meeting with Netanyahu. The families of hostages worry that extending Israeli control could lead the military to inadvertently kill their loved ones or Hamas to execute them. About 250 people were taken hostage during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, and more than three dozen hostages have been killed while in captivity, according to an investigation by the New York Times. Israeli authorities have said that up to 20 hostages in Gaza are believed to be alive. The bodies of 30 others, they say, are also being held in the territory. 'Hamas is a brutal terrorist organisation, and they'll kill hostages if the military comes near them,' said Elhanan Danino, whose son, Ori, was killed by his captors a year ago when Israeli soldiers were operating near a tunnel in southern Gaza in which he was being held. 'Every moment they are being held there — being starved — puts their lives at risk,' Danino added. 'I don't want to see other hostages die the same way our son did.' For Palestinian civilians, the possibility that Israel could escalate its operation has heightened fears that many more residents could be killed and that their already miserable living conditions in Gaza could become worse. 'They're talking about occupying areas that are packed with so many people,' said Mukhlis al-Masri, 34, who was forced to leave his home in northern Gaza and is now in Khan Younis. 'If they do that, there will be incalculable killing. The situation will be more dangerous than anyone can imagine.' On Monday, al-Masri said that his brother, brother-in-law and four nephews and nieces had been killed and that his sister had been seriously wounded when a school-turned-shelter was bombed in Khan Younis. He said that he was staying in a tent near Al-Nasr Hospital in the city to be near his sister, who is in the intensive care unit there. The Israeli military asked for more information about the bombing but did not provide further comment. The military has said that its strikes target militants and their weapons infrastructure in Gaza and has stressed that Hamas has embedded itself in civilian spaces. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Adam Rasgon, Natan Odenheimer, Ronen Bergman and Isabel Kershner Photographs by: Saher Alghorra ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
RNZ News
6 hours ago
- RNZ News
IDF is getting ready to take over Gaza city
Israel's defence force is getting ready to take over Gaza city after the security cabinet approved the plan. Ahead of an hours long meeting, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told media he wants to take control of the whole Palestinian territory. His office has confirmed the IDF will prepare for the take over of Gaza City while ensuring the provision of humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zone. Correspondent in Tel Aviv Blake Sifton spoke to Lisa Owen. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
