Under pressure, Israel cabinet poised to order complete takeover of Gaza
Israel and Hamas have failed to agreement on a ceasefire.
Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians.
Israel's cabinet could authorise on Tuesday a complete military takeover of Gaza for the first time in two decades, media reported, despite international pressure for a ceasefire to ease appalling conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leaning toward an expanded offensive and taking control of the entire enclave after 22 months of war against militant group Hamas, Israeli Channel 12 reported.
A senior Israeli source told Reuters on Monday that more force was an option following the collapse of indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas.
Seizing the entire territory would reverse a 2005 decision by Israel to pull settlers and military out of Gaza while retaining control over its borders - a move right-wing parties blame for Hamas gaining power there.
It was unclear, however, whether a potential full takeover of Gaza would entail a prolonged occupation or a short-term operation aimed at dismantling Hamas and freeing hostages.
Israel's coalition government is regarded as one of the most right-wing in its history, with the cabinet including parties that seek to annex both Gaza and the West Bank and encourage Palestinians to leave their homeland.
Eyad Baba/AFP
The country's military has throughout the war pushed back against the idea of Israel trying to fully occupy Gaza and establish military rule there, which would require it to take over long-term governance.
The military has also struggled with manpower issues as the war has dragged on, with reservists being repeatedly called up and putting a strain on capabilities.
The conflict was triggered by a Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 when gunmen stormed the border from Gaza, killing more than 1 200 people and seizing around 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's military campaign has devastated the tiny, crowded enclave, killing more than 60 000 people according to Palestinian health authorities.
READ | Hamas no 'threat to Israel', ex-security chiefs ask Trump to pressure Netanyahu into Gaza truce
It has forced nearly all of Gaza's over two million people from their homes and caused what a global hunger monitor called last week an unfolding famine.
Menahem Kahana/AFP
That has caused widespread international anger and prompted several European countries to say they would recognise a Palestinian state next month if there was no ceasefire.
Inside Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians, local health authorities said, including five people in a tent in Khan Younis and three aid seekers near Rafah in the south.
Israeli tanks pushed into central Gaza earlier on Tuesday but it was not clear if the move was part of a larger ground offensive.
Palestinians living in the last fifth of the territory where Israel has not yet taken military control via ground incursions or orders for civilians to leave said any new move to occupy the area would be catastrophic.
'If the tanks pushed through, where would we go, into the sea? This will be like a death sentence to the entire population,' said Abu Jehad, a Gaza wood merchant, who asked not to be named in full.
A Palestinian official close to the talks and mediation said Israeli threats could be a way to pressure Hamas to make concessions at the negotiation table.
It will only complicate the negotiation further, at the end, the resistance factions will not accept less than an end to the war, and a full withdrawal from Gaza.
Palestinian official
Israel said it would allow merchants to import goods.
A source in Gaza told Reuters some trucks had already entered carrying chocolates and biscuits for a merchant.
It is hoped that essential items such as children's milk, fresh meat and fruits, sugar, and rice could be allowed in, which would alleviate scarcity and drive down prices of what is available in the markets.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said last week he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war in Gaza.
But Israeli officials have also floated ideas including expanding the offensive and annexing parts of Gaza.
The failed ceasefire talks in Doha had aimed to clinch agreements on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce, during which aid would be flown into Gaza and half of the hostages Hamas is holding would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
The Israeli military was expected on Tuesday to present alternatives that include extending into areas of Gaza where it has not yet operated, according to two defence officials.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Intercept
3 minutes ago
- The Intercept
An Unexpected Path to Hold War Criminals Accountable
Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the Capitol to meet with U.S. lawmakers on July 9, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Images Tyler McBrien is the managing editor of Lawfare and a 2024-25 Law & Justice Journalism Project Fellow. Many of those watching the horrors unfold in Gaza have hung their highest hopes and deepest frustrations on the world's apex courts: the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Nearly two years into the war, these judicial bodies have neither prevented atrocities from occurring nor punished perpetrators. Journalists and activists amassed ample evidence documenting war crimes committed by the Israeli military, and yet its soldiers continue to operate in Gaza with impunity. It's a mistake to laser-focus on the ICJ, established by the United Nations Charter to settle disputes between states, and the ICC, which prosecutes individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression under the Rome Statute. Doing so misunderstands and overemphasizes their role. 'The ICC takes up way too much oxygen in discussions of international criminal justice and accountability,' the International Crisis Group's Brian Finucane told me. The myopia also misses important work happening in national courts. It's here at the domestic level where Palestinians have the best chance to see justice, as nation-states attempt to fulfill their international obligations through homegrown investigations and prosecutions. In many ways, the hopes and frustrations lavished on the ICC and ICJ are understandable. 'When people think of international trials, they think of Nuremberg and the signal to the international community that these are the most serious crimes that are being perpetrated,' said Jake Romm, a human rights lawyer and U.S. representative for the Hind Rajab Foundation. Gaza is exactly the kind of grave situation for which these courts were founded, and they have not been completely dormant since October 7, 2023. In early 2024, after South Africa brought a case against Israel alleging that it violated the U.N. Genocide Convention, the ICJ issued several rounds of provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts, halt military action, and ensure the flow of humanitarian aid. In November that same year, the ICC put out arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (along with three top Hamas commanders) for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. But the wheels of justice in general turn slowly, and, for Palestinians, it can often feel like the wheels of international justice in particular seldom turn at all. The ICJ likely won't rule on the genocide case until the end of 2027 at the earliest. And while the prospects of seeing Netanyahu or Gallant in the dock at The Hague were always dim, they look even dimmer after Hungary, a state party to the Rome Statute, allowed Israel's wanted prime minister safe passage through Budapest, shirking its obligation to arrest him. The ICC also remains embroiled in crisis after its chief prosecutor took leave amid allegations of sexual misconduct, as perennial resource problems and political pressure continue to plague the court and the Trump administration targets the institution with sanctions and other threats. Even special international criminal tribunals, like the ad hoc structures created in the former Yugoslavia or Rwanda, are subject to a United Nations Security Council veto, an insurmountable hurdle for Palestinians. These international courts have surely not met the moment, but they cannot fight for global justice alone, nor were they designed to. Without an independent enforcement mechanism, international law functions as a voluntary system, dependent on states — as both its subjects and principal agents — to carry it out. And, according to associate professor of criminal law at the University of Milan and senior legal adviser to the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights Chantal Meloni, the Rome Statute set out 'a very clear logic that not every international crime committed everywhere in the world can be under the jurisdiction of the ICC, and states have to take their share of the responsibility to prevent and punish these crimes.' National courts, on the other hand, often don't face the same resource constraints and can go after perpetrators up and down the chain of command. The pursuit of justice through domestic courts 'involves potentially hundreds, even thousands of potential suspects as opposed to the ICC, which is only ever going to be dealing with a handful of cases,' said Mark Lattimer, executive director at the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights. While states also face their own political pressures, they do not have to perform the ICC's difficult dance of appeasing its many patrons. Lattimer added that domestic efforts can also 'act as a break on double standards' all too present in international courts, especially for countries with a strong, independent judiciary insulated from prevailing geopolitical power shifts and free to pursue the gravest breaches of international law irrespective of the perpetrator's nationality. Read our complete coverage Efforts to activate domestic jurisdiction for international crimes are not new. A growing body of case law has arisen out of extraterritorial prosecutions in the Syrian war, the Balkan wars, various African conflicts, and, of course, World War II. Countries such as Spain and Belgium already had universal jurisdiction laws, which empower national authorities of any country to investigate and prosecute serious international crimes even if they were committed in another country, in place even before the adoption of the Rome Statute in 1998. Lawyers and activists are building on this historical precedent by pushing for domestic jurisdictions to investigate and prosecute allegations of atrocities by Israel's military in Gaza, the fruits of which have already led to tangible outcomes across several countries. Last month, Belgian authorities detained and questioned two Israeli soldiers on leave at a music festival in response to a legal complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation and the Global Legal Action Network. The episode may have marked the first time national authorities detained Israeli soldiers on suspicion of crimes committed in Gaza, but these 'traveling soldiers,' some of them dual nationals, have faced other consequences. In January, the Israeli foreign minister helped Yuval Vagdani, as a vacationing soldier, escape from Brazil after learning that a federal judge there had opened a war crimes investigation stemming from another Hind Rajab Foundation legal filing. (Vagdani has denied the allegations in the filing.) In addition to filing a complaint with the ICC against more than 1,000 members of Israel's military, the Hind Rajab Foundation has filed complaints and arrest requests with the national authorities of at least 23 countries. In response to these activities and others, the Israeli government issued advisories for soldiers traveling to certain jurisdictions with legal resources and other advice. 'They're spooked,' said Romm. 'National legal systems are coming online to possibly arrest and incarcerate these Israeli soldiers for what they're doing to the Palestinians for the first time in history.' Though no complaint has resulted in a prosecution yet, these cases will likely continue and may even pick up speed. In July, 30 countries convened by The Hague Group committed to supporting 'universal jurisdiction mandates, as and where applicable in our legal constitutional frameworks and judiciaries, to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes in the Occupied Palestine Territory.' Of course, the current political environment in several countries make any investigations of Israeli soldiers impossible, regardless of questions of jurisdiction and prosecutorial capacity. In April, the Hind Rajab Foundation filed an urgent request with the Justice Department to prosecute the Israeli soldier Yuval Shatel under U.S. federal law after learning he was spotted in Texas days prior. According to a press release from the foundation, the filing included a dossier of evidence in support of allegations that Shatel committed 'serious violations of international humanitarian law during Israel's military campaign in Gaza.' (Shatel and the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment). At the same time, the Hind Rajab Foundation is not naive. The chance of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directing the Justice Department to investigate its allegations against Shatel seems slim at best, especially since the U.S. War Crimes Act, passed in 1996, laid dormant until December 2023, when the Justice Department indicted four Russians for alleged violations of the federal war crimes statute — the first (and only) prosecution in the law's 30-year history. The apparent unwillingness to apply the statute elsewhere drew criticism as Israel's military campaign in Gaza intensified. On October 21, 2024, Justice Department attorneys wrote a letter to Bondi's predecessor, Merrick Garland, 'calling out the 'glaring gap' between the department's approach to crimes committed by Russia and Hamas — versus the department's silence on potential crimes committed by Israeli forces and civilians.' The Hind Rajab Foundation's request aims to close that gap. 'There is a discrepancy between what the letter of the law says and how the U.S. is acting,' said Romm. 'We filed this because we want them to prosecute, and because they can. They have jurisdiction, and the crimes are very clear.' The Shatel case is HRF's first U.S. prosecution request, but Romm says it won't be the last. 'All I can say is there will be more,' he told me. 'We're going to try to get everyone we possibly can.' 'Despite the fact that this carnage has gone on for almost two years now, it's still, by the standards of justice, in the early days.' There is no statute of limitations for the gravest transgressions of international law. For perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, the prosecutor's sword of Damocles will hang over them for a lifetime. In December, German courts cleared the way for a 100-year-old former Nazi to stand trial nearly 80 years after the end of WWII. 'Despite the fact that this carnage has gone on for almost two years now, it's still, by the standards of justice, in the early days,' said Finucane. 'When it comes to atrocity crime accountability, there are very long tails, and these things spool over the course of decades.' For anyone demanding justice and accountability for Israel's crimes in Gaza, the message is clear: Let a thousand prosecutions bloom.
Los Angeles Times
3 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Dozens killed seeking aid in Gaza as Israel weighs further military action
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — At least 38 Palestinians were killed overnight and into Wednesday in the Gaza Strip while seeking aid from United Nations convoys and sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor, according to local health officials. The Israeli military said it had fired warning shots when crowds approached its forces. Another 25 people, including several women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to local hospitals in Gaza. The military said it only targets Hamas militants. The latest deaths came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to announce further military action — and possibly plans for Israel to fully reoccupy Gaza. Experts say Israel's ongoing military offensive and blockade are already pushing the territory of some 2 million Palestinians into famine. A new U.N. report said only 1.5% of Gaza's cropland is accessible and undamaged. Another escalation of the nearly 22-month war could put the lives of countless Palestinians and around 20 living Israeli hostages at risk, and would draw fierce opposition both internationally and within Israel. Netanyahu's far-right coalition allies have long called for the war to be expanded, and for Israel to eventually take over Gaza, relocate much of its population and rebuild Jewish settlements there. President Trump, asked by a reporter Tuesday whether he supported the reoccupation of Gaza, said he wasn't aware of the 'suggestion' but that 'it's going to be pretty much up to Israel.' Of the 38 Palestinians killed while seeking aid, at least 28 died in the Morag Corridor, an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where U.N. convoys have been repeatedly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds in recent days, and where witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots as Palestinians advanced toward them, and that it was not aware of any casualties. Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies, said another four people were killed in the Teina area, on a route leading to a site in southern Gaza run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor. The Al-Awda Hospital said it received the bodies of six people killed near a GHF site in central Gaza. GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites. Two of the Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza City, in the north of the territory, killing 13 people there, including six children and five women, according to the Al-Ahli Hospital, which received the bodies. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its militants are entrenched in heavily populated areas. Israel facilitated the establishment of four GHF sites in May after blocking the entry of all food, medicine and other goods for 2 1/2 months. Israeli and U.S. officials said a new system was needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off humanitarian aid. The United Nations, which has delivered aid to hundreds of distribution points across Gaza throughout the war when conditions allow, has rejected the new system, saying it forces Palestinians to travel long distances and risk their lives for food, and that it allows Israel to control who gets aid, potentially using it to advance plans for further mass displacement. The U.N. human rights office said last week that some 1,400 Palestinians have been killed seeking aid since May, mostly near GHF sites but also along U.N. convoy routes where trucks have been overwhelmed by crowds. It says nearly all were killed by Israeli fire. This week, a group of U.N. special rapporteurs and independent human rights experts called for the GHF to be disbanded, saying it is 'an utterly disturbing example of how humanitarian relief can be exploited for covert military and geopolitical agendas in serious breach of international law.' The experts work with the U.N. but do not represent the world body. The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots when crowds threatened its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray and fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly crowding at its sites. Israel's air and ground war has destroyed nearly all of Gaza's food production capabilities, leaving its people reliant on international aid. A new report by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.N. satellite center found that just 8.6% of Gaza's cropland is still accessible following sweeping Israeli evacuation orders in recent months. Just 1.5% is accessible and undamaged, it said. The military offensive and a breakdown in security have made it nearly impossible for anyone to safely deliver aid, and aid groups say recent Israeli measures to facilitate more assistance are far from sufficient. Hospitals recorded four more malnutrition-related deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 193 people, including 96 children, since the war began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jordan said Israeli settlers blocked roads and hurled stones at a convoy of four trucks carrying aid bound for Gaza after they drove across the border into the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli far-right activists have repeatedly sought to halt aid from entering Gaza. Jordanian government spokesperson Mohammed al-Momani condemned the attack, which he said had shattered the windshields of the trucks, according to the Jordanian state-run Petra News Agency. The Israeli military said security forces went to the scene to disperse the gathering and accompanied the trucks to their destination. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and abducted another 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Of the 50 still held in Gaza, around 20 are believed to be alive. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children. It is part of the now largely defunct Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source for the number of war casualties. Shurafa, Khaled and Melzer write for the Associated Press. Khaled reported from Cairo and Melzer from Tel Aviv. Israel. Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio in Berlin and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
Associated Press
4 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Syria signs $14 billion in investment deals, including $4 billion airport expansion
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria signed agreements worth $14 billion with regional and international companies on Wednesday for 12 investment projects, including modernizing the international airport in Damascus and a new subway system, state media reported. The deals are the largest so far since foreign companies and countries started an investment push into the war-torn country after Western sanctions were eased following the fall of the 54-year rule of the Assad family. The head of Syria's Investment Authority, Talal al-Halili, was quoted by state-run news agency SANA as saying that the expansion of Damascus' International Airport will cost $4 billion and will be done by the Qatar-based UCC Holding. SANA said that the airport will be able to serve up to 31 million travelers a year, after the expansion. SANA added that the agreement for the new subway system in the capital is worth $2 billion, and the network is expected to be used by 750,000 people a day. The deal for the subway was signed by Syria's Transportation Ministry and the United Arab Emirates' National Investment Corporation, SANA said. Other projects include the $2 billion construction of 60 residential towers with 20,000 housing units outside of the capital. 'Syria is open for investments and determined to build a bright future,' al-Hilali said during the ceremony, which was attended by President Ahmad al-Sharaa. In late July, Syria and Saudi Arabia announced 47 investment agreements, valued at more than $6 billion to mark a significant step in rebuilding Syria's war-battered economy. In May, Syria signed an agreement with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and U.S. companies for the development of a $7 billion 5,000-megawatt energy project to revitalize much of Syria's war-battered electricity grid. 'The future of a prosperous and peaceful Syria is in the hands of Syria and its regional partners,' said the U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who attended Wednesday's signing in Damascus.
