Israel set to approve new war plan to occupy entire Gaza strip
The move, largely opposed by Israel's public and military top brass, could risk 'catastrophic consequences and further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages' the UN has warned.
Meanwhile, 135 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the last 24 hours, according to the Gaza health ministry, and another five from starvation or malnutrition.
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BreakingNews.ie
16 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Germany stops military exports that could be used in Gaza
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said his country will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in Gaza 'until further notice'. The move from Germany, which has been a supporter of Israel for decades, came after the Israeli cabinet announced plans to take over Gaza City. Advertisement In a statement, Mr Merz emphasised that Israel 'has the right to defend itself against Hamas's terror' and said the release of Israeli hostages and 'purposeful' negotiations towards a ceasefire in the 22-month conflict 'are our top priority'. He added that Hamas must not have a role in the future of Gaza. 'The even harsher military action by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, approved by the Israeli cabinet last night, makes it increasingly difficult for the German government to see how these goals will be achieved,' he added. 'Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice.' Advertisement The German government remains deeply concerned about the suffering of civilians in Gaza, he said, adding: 'With the planned offensive, the Israeli government bears even greater responsibility than before for providing for their needs.' He called on Israel to allow comprehensive access for aid deliveries — including for UN organisations and other non-governmental organisations — and said Israel 'must continue to comprehensively and sustainably address the humanitarian situation in Gaza'. Germany also called on Israel's government 'not to take any further steps toward annexing the West Bank'.
The Guardian
16 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Israel's move to take over Gaza looks likely to be open-ended occupation
One of Israel's most celebrated images is David Rubinger's photograph of a trio of paratroopers at the newly captured Western Wall in 1967, an event that would mark the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. You see it arriving at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. It has been used to illustrate the Israel Defense Forces' 'values' page, and appears endlessly in the Hebrew media and on pro-Israel sites. It is ironic that at the end of his life the central figure in the picture, Yitzhak Yifat, rejected at least some of the photograph's meaning. Speaking to the Guardian in 2017, with the benefit of five decades of hindsight, he reflected on that conquest. 'I can say that the results of the war were bad. We realised that we had conquered another people. A whole people. And now it seems we cannot now get to a true peace, a real peace,' he said. What was true then remains true today, as Israel's security cabinet has authorised the full occupation once again of Gaza, beginning with Gaza City. While Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested it will be required until Hamas can be replaced, the international community should consider the strong likelihood that Israel will maintain an open-ended control of all of Gaza – a recipe, say critics, for perpetual war. And although the statement from Netanyahu's office describing the decision and its aims is absent the word 'occupation' – with all the international legal obligations that would entail – no one should be in any doubt that this is what is envisaged Netanyahu's history in politics and diplomacy is one of endless excuses for why Israel should never meet the commitments it made in the Oslo peace process towards real self-determination and a Palestinian state, describing endlessly over the years the lack of a 'partner for peace' or claiming that any Palestinian state would be a threat to Israel. In practical terms, Israel's decision to seize full control of Gaza appears as reckless as it is delusional and inhuman, not least the notion that Israel will maintain control until the 'establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority'. As it currently stands, that alternative remains a fiction of Netanyahu's imagination. What will seem more plausible for many will be the far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich's unpalatable parsing of the decision on Friday. 'We are erasing the Palestinian state,' he declared, 'first in action and then officially.' In financial terms, as Israeli media have pointed out, the move is likely to place another huge financial burden on a country that has been haemorrhaging money during more than two years of conflict in theatres from Lebanon to Syria, Iran, Yemen and Gaza. Speaking to the rightwing Israel Hayom newspaper this week, Ram Aminach, an expert in Israel's military economics, suggested that the cost of taking Gaza under full control could run to almost $6bn in the coming months, with 'incomprehensible costs' associated with sustaining a Palestinian population of 2 million people in a shattered territory. 'Look at the international pressure Israel faces today and multiply that by five, at the least,' he said. 'To ease that pressure, we'll need to take care of the population in Gaza. No international player is going to help pay for that, not while Israel is seen the way it is right now.' And there is an even bigger question: whether Israel has the resources to maintain an occupation that may be long-term. Envisaged, according to briefings to Israeli journalists, as involving five divisions in an operation lasting five to six months, it assumes that the IDF is capable of achieving more than it has in two and a half years of war in which it has been forced to launch multiple operations in areas where it has claimed Hamas was defeated only to see fighters return. Nor is the recent history of military occupations encouraging, not least the US and British experience of insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. That appears, at least in part, to have been in the mind of the IDF's chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, when he made clear his opposition to the plan, suggesting it would lead to the death of the remaining Israeli hostages and greater risk to soldiers in an already exhausted Israeli military from IEDs. While Zamir has expressed his opposition in private to Netanyahu, others have made the same points publicly, among them the Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, who described the decision as a 'disaster that will lead to many more disasters'. Charging that Netanyahu had been dragged into the decision by his far-right allies who have campaigned for Jewish settlement in Gaza, he described the plan as 'a move that will kill the hostages and many soldiers, will cost Israeli taxpayers tens of billions and will destroy Israel's diplomatic relations'. 'This is exactly what Hamas wanted: for Israel to end up stuck in Gaza without a goal, in a useless occupation, the point of which no one understands,' Lapid said. All of which leaves what will be regarded by many in the international community as the most glaringly problematic issue. While the IDF controls 75% of Gaza, the remaining 25% of territory where the new Netanyahu offensive will be focused is where 80% of Gaza's population has been displaced to. How Israel plans to achieve its full control without a massive increase in civilian deaths in an already starving and desperate Palestinian population is chillingly undescribed. Multiple mass fatality incidents around the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's food distribution sites – where, according to the UN and other aid organisations, Israeli soldiers have killed hundreds of aid seekers – suggests that the IDF should not be counted on to behave humanely when confronted by those civilians. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, said on Friday: 'The Israeli government's decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza is wrong and we urge it to reconsider immediately. This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed.'
The Guardian
16 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Netanyahu announces plan to take over Gaza City in further escalation
Good morning. Israel's security cabinet has approved a plan to take over Gaza City, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has said, marking another escalation in the 22-month offensive that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed most of Gaza and pushed the territory into famine. Ahead of the security cabinet meeting, which began Thursday and ran through the night, Netanyahu had said Israel planned to retake control of the entire territory and eventually hand it off to friendly Arab forces opposed to Hamas. The announced plans stop short of that, perhaps reflecting the reservations of Israel's top general, who reportedly warned it would endanger the remaining 20 or so living hostages held by Hamas and further strain Israel's army after nearly two years of regional wars. Many families of hostages are also opposed, fearing further escalation will doom their loved ones. If signed off by the full cabinet, what will the plan mean? It will involve sending ground troops into the city – one of the few areas of Gaza that has not been turned into an Israeli buffer zone or placed under evacuation orders. What has the reaction to the Israeli security cabinet's decision been? It has ignited protests at home and abroad, and the UN has called for the plan to be 'immediately halted'. The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for planning an attack on Maryland's power grid. Brandon Russell, 30, was convicted earlier this year for conspiring to plan the attack with his girlfriend. Prosecutors detailed his long-term links to white supremacist groups and his recent efforts to organize 'sniper attacks' on electrical substations around Baltimore. The attack aimed to trigger societal collapse by targeting the energy infrastructure of the majority-Black city. What had Russell planned to do after the attack? Russell and his co-defendant, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, aimed to 'create their own bizarre utopia populated by people who only look and think like they do', according to the US district judge James Bredar. Donald Trump has said he will meet Vladimir Putin despite the Russian leader's refusal to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Friday marks Trump's original deadline for Russia to take action on ending its invasion of Ukraine, or face sanctions and further tariffs. Trump's latest announcement quashes speculation that the US had demanded direct talks between the two warring presidents as a prerequisite of a Trump-Putin summit. What has Putin said about meeting Zelenskyy? That 'certain conditions must be created' for it to happen. The Kremlin has claimed preparations are under way for a bilateral summit with Trump next week. More than 60 countries around the globe are racing to respond to the latest wave of US tariffs, which came into effect on Thursday. 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