Israel’s security cabinet has approved Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take over and occupy Gaza City, forcibly displacing an estimated 1 million Palestinians sheltering there and establishing “camps” to confine Palestinians in an escalation of Israel’s genocide.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on the plan that the Israeli military is preparing to take control of the capitol city “while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones.” Netanyahu has separately announced plans to take over all of Gaza, saying in an interview on Fox News Thursday that Israel intends to seize Gaza and then hand over governing responsibilities to another Arab nation.
Israeli media reports that the plan would take place in phases over the next five months. The first phase would entail driving the entire civilian population in the city, estimated to be about half of Gaza’s population, toward al-Mawasi in the south — where Israel is planning to create camps to confine Palestinians, Israel’s defense minister said last month.
Then, Israel would launch a military campaign in the region in the second phase, Israeli sources said, while U.S. officials ramp up the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation death trap operation in the Strip.
The plan still awaits final approval from the full cabinet, which is expected to meet this weekend, according to Reuters. NBC reports that commercial satellite images show the Israeli military is increasing troops near the Gaza border, potentially indicating a major new ground invasion.
Israeli officials have outright said that the plan is to push Palestinians into camps, while Israeli outlets are also reporting as such.
“The goal is to evacuate all Palestinian civilians from Gaza City to the central camps and other areas by October 7,” one senior Israeli official told Axios. “A siege will be imposed on the Hamas militants who remain in Gaza City, and at the same time, a ground offensive will be carried out in Gaza City.”
Netanyahu’s office also outlined supposed five principles for the “end” of the genocide as approved by the cabinet: disarming Hamas; return of Israeli hostages; demilitarization of Gaza; Israeli security control in Gaza; and the establishment of an government not controlled by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
The siege and forced evacuation plan was swiftly condemned by the UN and world leaders.
“The Israeli Government’s plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza strip must be immediately halted,” said UN human rights chief Volker Türk in a statement Friday. “It runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible.”
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas condemned the plan as a “full-fledged crime” furthering Israel’s “policy of genocide, systematic killing, starvation, and siege.” Hamas added that the plan shows that Israeli officials “do not care about the fate of the captives.”
European leaders also criticized the plan, but took little action to stop it. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Germany, one of Israel’s top foreign arms providers, is halting transfer of weapons that could be used in Gaza — though UN experts have previously said that states have the obligation to halt transfers of all, not just some, arms to Israel due to the high risk of them being used to violate international law.
Meanwhile, even though the plan marks a major escalation of Israel’s genocide, some of Netanyahu’s extremist coalition partners still feel it doesn’t go far enough. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said via a spokesperson on Friday that the plan “may sound good, but it’s actually more of the same,” adding that it’s “not Zionist,” per Times of Israel.
“This is not an operation to conquer the Strip, take full military control of the territory and push for a decisive outcome — the only way to ensure victory, lasting security and the return of the hostages — but a specific and dangerous operation whose sole purpose is to return Hamas to the negotiating room — a goal that isn’t a goal of the war,” Smotrich said.
Though he uses the lives of Israeli captives as reasoning for his opposition, Smotrich has previously called for Israel to fully take over and occupy Gaza regardless of the captives.
“We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip. We will stop being afraid of the word ‘occupation,’” Smotrich reportedly said at a far right conference in May. This would entail “no retreat from the territories we have conquered, not even in exchange for hostages.”
Press freedom is under attack
As Trump cracks down on political speech, independent media is increasingly necessary.
Truthout produces reporting you won’t see in the mainstream: journalism from the frontlines of global conflict, interviews with grassroots movement leaders, high-quality legal analysis and more.
Our work is possible thanks to reader support. Help Truthout catalyze change and social justice — make a tax-deductible monthly or one-time donation today.