Israel’s security cabinet has approved plans to occupy Gaza City, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Friday, August 8. This marks a further escalation of Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza, which have so far killed over 60,000 Palestinians and pushed the territory into famine.

During its 22-month military offensive launched in October 2023, Israel has repeatedly bombarded Gaza City, carrying out numerous raids. The city was the largest in Gaza before the airstrike, and it is unclear how many people still reside there.

Today, Gaza City is one of the few areas in the territory that has not been turned into an Israeli “buffer zone”. Israel already controls around three quarters of the entire territory, meaning that a major ground operation in the city could displace hundreds of thousands of people and have devastating consequences on efforts to deliver food and other supplies to the starving population.

After a security cabinet meeting that began yesterday and ran through the night, Netanyahu’s office announced that the military “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones.”

The official statement further said that a majority of the security cabinet had adopted “five principles for concluding the war: the disarming of Hamas; the return of all hostages – living and dead; the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip; the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.”

Ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu also stated that Israel planned to take control over the entire territory in Gaza, before eventually handing it over to the Arab states or a governing body other than Hamas.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement, “The Israeli government’s plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza Strip must be immediately halted”.

Türk added, “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, to the realisation of the agreed two-state solution and to the right of Palestinians to self-determination.”

The UN High Commissioner also spoke about “all evidence to date” that suggests “this further escalation will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes”.

“Instead of intensifying this war, the Israeli Government should put all its efforts into saving the lives of Gaza’s civilians by allowing the full, unfettered flow of humanitarian aid,” he said.

According to local hospitals, at least 42 Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes on August 7, approximately 13 of whom were seeking aid in a zone where UN convoys are regularly overwhelmed by desperate crowds.