Asked in an interview with Fox News if Israel would \u201ctake control of all of Gaza\u201d, Netanyahu replied: \u201cWe intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza<\/a>.\u201d The security cabinet would need to approve such a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter,\u201d Netanyahu said. \u201cWe want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Gaza, where Israel\u2019s air and ground war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced most of the population, destroyed vast areas and caused a famine, Palestinians are braced for further misery. \u201cThere is nothing left to occupy,\u201d said Maysaa al-Heila, who is living in a displacement camp. \u201cThere is no Gaza left.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aya Mohammad, a 30-year-old Palestinian who, after repeated displacement, had returned with her family to Gaza City, said: \u201cWhere should we go? We have been displaced and humiliated enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know what displacement is? Does the world know? It means your dignity is wiped out, you become a homeless beggar, searching for food, water and medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least 42 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At a meeting of Israel\u2019s security cabinet on Thursday evening, Netanyahu was hoping to obtain approval for fully controling the strip, Israeli media reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan would mean sending ground troops into the few areas of the strip that have not been totally destroyed, roughly 25% of the territory where many of its 2 million people have sought refuge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israel is reportedly preparing a two-phase operation aimed at seizing control of Gaza City, with plans to evacuate about 1 million residents \u2013 half of Gaza\u2019s population \u2013 in what officials describe as a temporary measure to establish civilian infrastructure in central Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Israel\u2019s Channel 12, the proposal is being framed as a limited operation rather than a full invasion, apparently to placate military chiefs wary of long-term occupation. The chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, has reportedly warned that occupying Gaza would plunge Israel into a \u201cblack hole\u201d of prolonged insurgency, humanitarian responsibility and heightened risk to hostages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the operation\u2019s goal \u2013 potentially involving up to five IDF divisions and lasting four to five months \u2013 suggests a far more extensive campaign. Israeli officials say it aims to pressure Hamas back into negotiations and possibly align with a broader US-led peace framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet many remain sceptical. As one unnamed security official put it: \u201cWe are entering a Vietnam model, with our eyes wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Netanyahu is under intense international pressure to reach a ceasefire agreement, but he also faces pressure from within his coalition to continue the war. Some far-right allies in his government have pushed for a full occupation of Gaza and for Israel to reestablish settlements there, two decades after it withdrew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, told reporters on Wednesday that he hoped the government would approve the military taking control of the rest of Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The World Health Organization said on Thursday that 99 people were known to have died from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip so far this year, with the figure probably an underestimate. International outrage over the humanitarian situation in Gaza<\/a> has ratcheted up pressure on Israel, with UN agencies warning of famine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for scaled-up, sustained and unimpeded aid to be allowed to flow into Gaza, through all possible routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People in Gaza \u201chave limited access to basic services, have faced repeated displacement and are now suffering from a blockade of food supplies\u201d, he told the UN correspondents\u2019 association ACANU. \u201cMalnutrition is widespread and hunger-related deaths are rising.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In July, nearly 12,000 children under five were identified as suffering from acute malnutrition \u2013 the highest monthly figure ever recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza, according to local health officials. According to a satellite survey published by the UN\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organization, just 1.5% of Gaza\u2019s farmland \u2013 less than one square mile \u2013 is now accessible and undamaged<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, in Israel, the families of the roughly 20 remaining living hostages have called for Israelis to protest against the government and a decision they fear would endanger the lives of their loved ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Thursday morning, about 20 family members of those still held captive in Gaza<\/a> boarded boats that departed from the coastal city of Ashkelon, near the border with Gaza, carrying yellow flags and posters bearing the images of the hostages, as they shouted their names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the moment for courageous leadership,\u201d the families said, appealing directly to Netanyahu, as well as the lead hostage negotiator, Ron Dermer, and the IDF chief. \u201cContinued obstruction, delay, and failure to bring our loved ones home will be a tragedy for generations. The responsibility is yours. Do not sacrifice our loved ones on the altar of an endless war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the 251 people kidnapped\u00a0on 7 October 2023, by Hamas\u00a0and its allies, 49 remain hostages in Gaza, of whom 27 have been declared dead by the army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the West Bank, Israeli authorities returned the body of the Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, who was killed by an Israeli settler last week, after his female Bedouin relatives began a hunger strike to protest the authority\u2019s decision to hold his body in custody. The hunger strike was a rare public call from Bedouin women who traditionally mourn in private. Hathaleen was shot and killed by an Israeli settler during a confrontation caught on video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additional reporting by Reuters, AFP and Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza in\u00a0defiance of warnings\u00a0that such a move would lead to countless more Palestinian deaths, further mass displacement and endanger Israeli hostages still held in the territory. Before a security cabinet meeting to discuss Gaza\u2019s future, the Israeli prime minister insisted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4836,7603,147,6850,5569,8217,183,7358,6573,9204,3782,10387,12283,887,8256,287,9331,6083,7234,539,5241,5846,10427,6738,5455,6458,8057,12210,12354,6496,8254,3577,2629,12332,10736,2264,5930,12634,3259,5328,10825,12173,12298,12957,8995,10954,11493,5252,3095,5205,10388,9515,3874,9974,10303,9833,5572,7806,6737,12085,8000,8353,5568,6821,5396,9374,3174,1511,5561,11171,6431,5807,4224,9205,5655,11259,5818,6262,9178,5465,6348,8033,10024,5251,8869,5570,5320,36,594],"class_list":["post-45838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-access","tag-activist","tag-agriculture","tag-aid","tag-arab","tag-army","tag-assault","tag-bank","tag-black","tag-border","tag-cabinet","tag-campaign","tag-ceasefire","tag-chief-of-staff","tag-chiefs","tag-children","tag-city","tag-dead","tag-death","tag-delay","tag-died","tag-displaced","tag-epa","tag-families","tag-family","tag-famine","tag-fear","tag-female","tag-finance","tag-food","tag-fox-news","tag-future","tag-gaza","tag-gaza-city","tag-gaza-strip","tag-government","tag-hamas","tag-health","tag-homeless","tag-hospitals","tag-hostage","tag-hostages","tag-hunger","tag-idf","tag-infrastructure","tag-international","tag-interview","tag-invasion","tag-israel","tag-july","tag-kidnapped","tag-killed","tag-lead","tag-leadership","tag-medicine","tag-meeting","tag-military","tag-model","tag-mourn","tag-nations","tag-negotiations","tag-outrage","tag-palestinian","tag-palestinians","tag-peace","tag-population","tag-prime-minister","tag-prime-minister-israeli-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-protest","tag-protesters","tag-release","tag-risk","tag-sacrifice","tag-satellite","tag-security","tag-shot","tag-strike","tag-tragedy","tag-troops","tag-un","tag-us","tag-video","tag-vietnam","tag-war","tag-water","tag-west-bank","tag-women","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45840,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45838\/revisions\/45840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/38b3f2b9cd2ab45571f314b72262406e9b568a31\/0_0_4000_2667\/master\/4000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none\")
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