Israel announces plan to take over Gaza City, escalating the war : NPR

The Palestinians rush to collect humanitarian aid disseminated by parachutes in the city of Gaza on August 7, 2025.

Jehad Alshrafi / AP

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Jehad Alshrafi / AP

The Israeli security firm approved a proposal early Friday for the military to extend the War in Gaza And take control of Gaza City, one of the last areas of the territory which is not yet under a complete military occupation.

The meeting of the security firm went well during the night in Israel, ending with an overview of the soldiers to possibly control the whole territory.

The Prime Minister’s office announced about 23 months Israeli air strikes and attacks killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, one of which is a third, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Gaza City – For a long time the beating heart of Gaza – has been largely destroyed by Air strikes and raids Throughout the war. However, it houses several of the last partially functional hospitals of the territory, a church where Minority Christians of Gaza are sheltered and where tens of thousands of displaced people have installed tent camps.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ceased to describe the takeover of Gaza City as an occupation, although the UN already says almost 90% of Gaza is under military control or prohibited to the Palestinians and judged a red zone. The city of Gaza, certain parts of the central Gaza and a stretch of sand along the sea are the only areas which are not yet occupied by the Israeli land forces.

Israeli troops already operate in eastern Gaza City under the cover of almost constant air strikes. We do not know how the soldiers plan to push further in densely populated areas – or where people may be forced to flee in the midst of uninformed experts hunger say is a course Famine on the territory.

By announcing the decision, the Netanyahu office said that aid would be distributed to civilians outside the combat zones, without developing.

Israeli hostage families Always detained by activists in Gaza require a ceasefire, fearing that military operations could lead to their death.

Einav Zangauker, whose Matan son is a hostage -detained, said this week that Netanyahu had promised to conclude an agreement to end the war and release the hostages.

“But he exploited my pain, the pain of the families of this injured nation-he sabotated the agreement,” she said. “He lied to me – he lied to us all!”

Israeli opposition chief Yair, Lapid, criticized the decision of “disaster that will lead to many other disasters”.

“This is exactly what Hamas wanted: for Israel to get stuck on the ground without objective, without defining the vision of the next day, in a futile occupation that no one understands where it leads,” he said in a statement.

Public opinion in Israel is divided on the opportunity to end the war, but this week, tens of thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv for a cease-fire. In addition, hundreds of former generals and security officials in Israel have signed a open letter To President Trump, asking him to end the war and put an end to suffering. They said Hamas no longer constituted a strategic threat to Israel after the group’s deadly attack on October 7, 2023.

Netanyahu, however, also resisted Global pressure assembly To end the war and considerably improve the aid to Gaza.

When asked this week on possible Israeli plans to occupy all of Gaza militarily, Trump said that the decision was “about Israel”.

The security firm, made up of the main leaders of Israel, adopted five objectives before Israel ends the war: the disarmament of Hamas, the release of all 50 hostages – less than half of which are considered alive – demilitizing Gaza, the control of Israeli security in Gaza and establishing a civil administration which is neither Hamas nor the authority of gesture.

The declaration of the security firm has not given any details on what the control of Israeli security in Gaza should resemble Israel to end the war, nor how a civil administration would be formed, what would be its role and which would lead it.

The Prime Minister’s office said that another military operations plan in Gaza that Netanyahu had presented had been rejected by the security firm, which includes two far -right ministers who openly called the permanent expulsion of the Gaza Palestinians and the reconstruction of the Jewish colonies.

Israel faces international criticism

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the Israeli government’s decision to take control of the city of Gaza was “wrong” and urged the government.

“This action will do nothing to put an end to this conflict or to help guarantee the release of the hostages. It will no longer bring blood effutes,” he wrote in a statement. “What we need is a ceasefire, an increase in humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages by Hamas and a negotiated solution.”

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong criticized this decision in a statement.

“Australia calls on Israel not to take this path, which will only increase the humanitarian disaster in Gaza,” she said. “A solution to two states is the only way to ensure lasting peace – a Palestinian State and the State of Israel, living side by side in peace and security within internationally recognized borders.”

Meanwhile, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, described the announcement of “shocking”.

In an interview with the BBC, she said that the decision “talks about the despair of the Israeli Prime Minister”, adding that it was “difficult to imagine how much harm he [Netanyahu] can do because they [Gazans] are beyond the edge of collapse. “”

Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for the plan to be “immediately interrupted”, adding that it was contrary to the decisions rendered by the international courts of justice on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, including Gaza.

Willem Marx contributed to this report.