THE NETANYAHU-led Israeli regime’s just-announced plan for the permanent occupation of the Gaza Strip and permanent expulsion of Palestinians from it has been widely condemned.
UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca told the UN Security Council that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s push to occupy Gaza fully is ‘deeply alarming’.
European Commission Vice President Teresa Ribera described the plan as an ‘unacceptable provocation’.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet tomorrow night to discuss next steps for the military operation in Gaza, according to his office.
During the meeting, the cabinet is reportedly expected to approve the complete occupation of Gaza, despite backlash from army officials and the chief of staff, who warn that the move is not worth the potential loss of captives still held in the enclave.
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich sent a strong message that the country is ‘closer than ever’ to rebuilding Jewish settlements in Gaza and that the war presents an opportunity to expand them further.
‘It’s real,’ he said. ‘For 20 years we called it wishful thinking. It seems to me it is now a real working plan.’
When questioned on it yesterday, US President Trump claimed: ‘It’s pretty much up to Israel.’
At least 135 Palestinians, including 87 aid seekers, were killed and 771 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
The number of people who starved to death in the enclave during Israel’s war has risen to 193, with five new confirmed hunger-related deaths coming in the past 24 hours.
Despite the suffering, Israel allowed just 36 aid trucks into Gaza yesterday, even as 22,000 loaded trucks remain at the crossings, waiting to enter, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza.
Before October 2023, about 500 aid trucks entered Gaza daily – a number that has not been reached since.
In March, Israel completely blocked all exits and aid, only opening up for a tiny fraction of the needed aid in the past two months.
Once food is offloaded at the border holding areas, agencies must request permission for convoys to enter and distribute in Gaza.
But approvals are inconsistent. According to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), only 76 out of 138 convoy requests were approved between July 19 and 25.
The General Directorate of Civil Defence in the Gaza Strip has issued a desperate appeal to the United Nations and international humanitarian organisations for the urgent provision of fuel, warning that the majority of its emergency vehicles and rescue equipment are no longer operational.
Without immediate intervention, the Civil Defence cautioned, thousands of lives remain at imminent risk.
• see editorial
