Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told his ministers this week that he will seek cabinet approval for a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip. According to reports in the Israeli media, several ministers said Netanyahu used the term “occupation of the Strip” in private conversations describing his plan. One anonymous official was quoted as saying: “The die is cast—we are going for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip.” Referring to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who is said to oppose such plans, the official added: “If the chief of staff doesn’t agree, he should resign.” (ToI)
These reports come as more than a dozen former senior Israeli security officials issued a joint video message with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that it has become damaging to Israel’s own national interests. The message was accompanied by an open letter to US President Donald Trump calling upon him to pressure Netanyahu to instate a ceasefire. The figures include former prime minister and IDF chief Ehud Barak; former IDF chiefs of staff Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz; former Shin Bet directors Nadav Argaman, Yoram Cohen, Ami Ayalon, Yaakov Peri and Carmi Gillon; former Mossad chiefs Tamir Pardo, Efraim Halevy and Danny Yatom; and former Israel Police commissioners Dudi Cohen, Moshe Karadi, Rafi Peled and Assaf Hefetz. (ToI, i24)
This also comes amid a deepening of the ongoing political crisis in Israel, with the cabinet voting unanimously Aug. 4 to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from office, following her pursuance of corruption invesitgations into Netanyahu’s government. Her removal was immediately frozen by the High Court until the justices can rule on its legality. In a statement after the vote, Baharav-Miara called her dismissal “unlawful.” (ToI)
The day before the order to remove her, thousands of people gathered outside Baharav-Miara’s home in a show of support, protesting what they called the “llegal attempt to remove her by those seeking to dismantle Israeli democracy.” (JP)
Meanwhile, daily carnage and growing hunger continue in the Strip. There is outrage in Israel as videos were released by Hamas and Palestinian Islaic Jihad showing two of the hostages appearing dangerously emaciated. But Hamas denied that it intentionally starves prisoners, saying hostages eat what their fighters and people eat amid a hunger crisis in Gaza. (BBC News, NewsHour)
At least 87 Palestinians—including 52 people seeking aid—were killed and 644 others injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, the enclave’s health ministry said Aug. 5. (MEE) The United Nations says more than 1,300 people have been killed trying to obtain aid supplies in the enclave since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began operating in May, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites. (ToI)
At least 27 were reportedly killed by Israeli forces while trying to get food, and six others died from starvation or malnutrition in Gaza, on Aug. 3. That same day, Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, led a group of some 1,200 Israeli Jews in prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, which was protested by the Palestinian Authority as a “dangerous escalation.” The group gathered at the compound under the protection of the Israeli military. (TG, TG)
Ben-Gvir is a leading advocate of “transfer” of the entire Palestinian population from Gaza. Druing his al-Aqsa visit, he openly called on Israel to “fully occupy” and “declare full sovereignty” over the Gaza Strip. (DW)
Such extremist rhetoric of course loans credence to claims of Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza.
The president of Ireland has now broached United Nations military intervention to save lives in Gaza. President Michael Higgins called on the UN to invoke Chapter 7 of its charter to deploy troops into the war zone to secure relief corridors. (RTÉ News)
Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons
Israel security cabinet approves plan to conquer Gaza City
Israel’s security cabinet on Aug. 7 approved a proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take over all of Gaza City, and issue a one-month deadline for residents to evacuate. Netanyahu openly portrays this as a first step toward his ambition of a re-occupation of the entirety of the Gaza Strip. (ToI)
UN experts call for disbanding of GHF
UN experts on Aug. 5 called for dismantling the US/Israel-backed aid distribution group in Gaza to allow experienced humanitarian organizations to provide unfettered aid to Palestinians, citing accusations of war crimes at distribution points. The experts noted reports of “indiscriminate fire” against civilians seeking aid at GHF-operated sites. (Jurist)
Both Canada and Belgium have in recent days air-dropped aid into Gaza. However, humanitarian groups insist that unfettered ground access is urgently needed to avert famine. (Jurist)
Israeli protests mount against Gaza re-occupation plan
Since Netanyahu announced his plan for the re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, protesters have repeatedly filled the streets of Tel Aviv to demand a ceasefire and hostage release deal. (Radio Australia)
Hours before the pivotal cabinet meeting, families of hostages held in Gaza embarked on a maritime demonstration, sailing a flotilla from Ashkelon’s marina toward the Gaza border. The two-hour voyage, led by the Hostages & Missing Families Forum, included a symbolic act near Gaza’s coast where families shouted messages of hope to the captives and tossed 50 yellow life-jackets into the sea—for each of the 50 hostages still being held. (YNet)
Al Jazeera journalists killed in targeted Israeli strike
Five Al Jazeera staff correspondents are reported to have been killed late Aug. 10 in a targeted Israeli strike on a press tent outside Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital. The strike occurred while journalists were reportedly in an identified media tent. The Israel Defense Forces claimed it targeted journalist Anas al-Sharif, alleging he led a Hamas “terrorist cell” and advanced “rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and [Israeli] troops.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists claimed the attack raises the number of Al Jazeera staff journalists killed by Israel in Gaza during the war to 10. Eight freelancers have also been killed by Israeli military operations. The press group further contended that, in total, 192 journalists have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023—most of them Palestinians killed by Israel. (Jurist)
Israeli protests against Gaza re-occupation escalate
On the night of Aug. 10, more than 60,000 Israelis flooded the streets of Tel Aviv, blocking the key Ayalon Highway in a demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to expand military operations in Gaza. Protesters ignited fires that escalated into clashes with the police. (INRA)
One group of protesters meanwhile stormed the live broadcast of Israel’s “Big Brother” TV show wearing shirts reading “Leave Gaza.” (ToI)
Protesters call national strike in Israel
The Hostage Families Forum says that almost 500,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square Aug. 17 for a mass rally demanding the government reach a deal to free the captives held in Gaza. This was part of a national “day of stoppage” that blocked traffic and closed businesses across Israel. (ToI, Sky News)
More genocidal rhetoric from Israeli officialdom
Leaked audio recordings broadcast Aug. 15 reveal remarks by Israel’s former chief of military intelligence about the price he believed Palestinians should pay for the Oct. 7 attack. The recordings, aired by Israel’s Channel 12 TV, captured former Maj. Gen. Aharon Halivasaying in Hebrew, “The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations.”
He went further, saying that 50 Palestinians should die for every Israeli killed on Oct. 7.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re children. I’m not speaking out of revenge. I’m talking about a message for future generations. From time to time, they need a Nakba to feel the cost,” Haliva said. (NPR)
Israel to ‘open gates of hell’ in Gaza City
Israel’s Defense Minister threatened to destroy Gaza City if Hamas does not agree to disarm, release all remaining hostages and end the war on Tel Aviv’s terms.
“Soon, the gates of hell will open upon the heads of Hamas’s murderers and rapists in Gaza—until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament,” Israel Katz posted on Twitter.
“If they do not agree, Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” he added, referring to two cities in Gaza largely razed during previous Israeli operations. (NDTV)
Israeli military data indicate 83% civilian death rate in Gaza
Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare.
As of May, 19 months into the war, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 named fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or “probably dead,” a joint investigation by The Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found.
At that time 53,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli attacks, according to health authorities in Gaza, a toll that included combatants and civilians. Fighters named in the Israeli military intelligence database accounted for just 17% of the total, which indicates that 83% of the dead were civilians.
That apparent ratio of civilians to combatants among the dead is extremely high for modern warfare, even compared with conflicts notorious for indiscriminate killing, including the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars.
“That proportion of civilians among those killed would be unusually high, particularly as it has been going on for such a long time,” said Therése Pettersson from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, which tracks civilian casualties worldwide. “If you single out a particular city or battle in another conflict, you could find similar rates, but very rarely overall.”
In global conflicts tracked by UCDP since 1989, civilians made up a greater proportion of the dead only in Srebenica—although not the Bosnian war overall—in the Rwandan genocide, and during the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022, Pettersson said.
Israeli protesters stage ‘day of disruption’
Tens of thousands of people took part in demonstrations across Israel on Aug. 26, blocking highways on a “day of disruption” that aimed to push Benjamin Netanyahu into agreeing a deal to end the war and calling off plans to attack Gaza City. (The Guardian)
Israeli youth block highway
Dozens of teenage activists protesting for the return of the hostages blocked the northern Ayalon Highway on Aug. 31. The group said in a statement: “We are not willing to live in a routine where the hostages are murdered in Hamas tunnels and the Israeli government doesn’t even bother discussing the deal on the table. Therefore, we will not allow the school year to start as usual.” (JP)
Another ‘Day of Disruption’ in Israel
Families of hostages led a protest march from the Knesset to the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem, where they rallied the night of Sept. 3 to cap another “Day of Disruption,” calling on the government to negotiate a deal to release the 48 captives still held in Gaza.
At the same time as the march, protesters elsewhere in the country temporarily shut down several roads, including Route 1, the key Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway, and Highway 431 near Mod’in. (ToI)