The future of 1 million Palestinians hangs in the balance after Israel’s security cabinet approved a new ground offensive aimed at taking complete control of Gaza’s largest city in a decision that has triggered global outrage.
The plan put forward by Benjamin Netanyahu for Gaza City would entail a further escalation in the 22-month war and mean more mass displacements of an exhausted and starving population.
It has yet to be endorsed by the full cabinet, expected to convene in the next few days, but there have been calls from around the world for the government to change its mind. Germany, Israel’s second-biggest arms supplier and strongest backer in Europe, on Friday suspended the delivery of weaponry that could be used in Gaza.
Foreign ministers from the UK, Germany, Italy, Australia and New Zealand said in a joint statement on Saturday that the plans to control Gaza City will make an already perilous situation worse, with the “worst-case scenario” of mass famine already unfolding in the territory. The ministers said further large-scale military operations in Gaza “will aggravate the catastrophic humanitarian situation, endanger the lives of the hostages, and further risk the mass displacement of civilians”.
An emergency UN security council meeting has been scheduled for 10am EDT on Sunday, after being pushed back from Saturday.
The proposal is also reported to have opened a deep rift between Netanyahu and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) leadership but has not been opposed by the Trump administration, Israel’s most important backer.
Hamas said in a statement that Netanyahu’s plans meant he had abandoned the surviving hostages seized by the group in its surprise attack on Israel in October 2023, which triggered the war. The statement accused the Israeli prime minister of “sacrificing them to serve his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda”.
Before the security cabinet meeting, which began on Thursday and ran through the night, the Israeli prime minister had said Israel planned to take control of the entire territory and eventually hand it to friendly Arab forces opposed to Hamas.
The plans announced on Friday morning stop short of that goal, perhaps reflecting the opposition of the IDF chief of general staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, who told Netanyahu on Tuesday he was “walking into a trap” according to Israeli press reports, warning it would endanger the remaining 20 or so living hostages held by Hamas and further strain Israel’s army after nearly two years of regional wars.
However, in a meeting with the leadership of the IDF southern command on Friday, Zamir vowed to carry out the government’s orders.
“We are advancing detailed preparations at the highest level, accounting for all possible outcomes. As always, we will carry out the mission with utmost precision and determination,” the army chief said.
NBC published commercial satellite imagery showing a buildup of Israeli military vehicles on the edge of the coastal strip and quoted US officials as saying it could mean a new ground offensive is imminent.
The plan laid out by Netanyahu’s office lists five objectives: disarming Hamas, returning all hostages, demilitarising the entire Gaza Strip, taking security control of the territory, and establishing “an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority”.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded Gaza City and carried out numerous raids in its devastated streets, returning to different neighbourhoods again and again as militants regrouped. It is one of the few areas of Gaza that has not been turned into an Israeli buffer zone or placed under evacuation orders.
The Netanyahu plan would mean sending ground troops into the few areas of the territory that have not been totally destroyed, making up about 25% of the Gaza Strip. It would force approximately 1 million Palestinians in Gaza City and surrounding areas into evacuation zones in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Sources familiar with details of the meeting said the evacuation of the city was scheduled to be completed by 7 October.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the plan is being framed as a limited operation rather than a full invasion, apparently to placate military chiefs wary of long-term occupation, warding off an open rift with the IDF leadership. Some Israeli reports suggested Zamir may resign.
A major ground operation could displace tens of thousands of people and further disrupt efforts to deliver food to the territory.
The Israeli security cabinet’s decision has ignited protests at home and abroad. Thousands of demonstrators are preparing to take to the streets over the weekend, while families of the remaining hostages held in Gaza fear an escalation could doom their loved ones. Dozens of them protested outside the security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday, and then outside the home of the defence minister, Israel Katz, on Friday.
Former top Israeli security officials have also come out against the plan, warning of a quagmire with little added military benefit. The Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, denounced the cabinet’s move on Friday, calling it a disaster that would “lead to many other disasters”, including the deaths of hostages and the killing of many soldiers, as well as costing Israeli taxpayers tens of billions and causing “diplomatic bankruptcy”.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said it was “increasingly difficult to understand” how Israel’s plan would accomplish the aims of disarming Hamas and liberating the remaining hostages.
“Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice,” he said.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, said Israel’s decision was wrong and urged it to immediately reconsider. “This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed,” he said.
The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, said the Israeli government’s plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza Strip “must be immediately halted”, while the EU Council president, António Costa, said implementation of the plan “must have consequences for EU-Israel relations”.
However, no opposition has come from Washington. When asked about a possible Israeli takeover of Gaza, Donald Trump said on Tuesday: “I really can’t say. It is going to be pretty much up to Israel.”
The news site Axios cited a US official as saying that Trump had been appalled by the video released by Hamas showing an Israeli hostage digging his own grave. “It influenced the president, and he is going to let the Israelis do what they need to do,” the official was quoted as saying.
Netanyahu’s office said that under the plan to defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army would prepare to “take control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside combat zones”.
An Israeli official had earlier said the security cabinet would discuss plans to conquer all or parts of Gaza not yet under Israeli control. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that whatever was approved would be implemented gradually to increase pressure on the Palestinian militant group.
Palestinians, at least 90% of whom have already been displaced at least once by the war and of whom nearly one in 10 have been injured in Israeli attacks, are braced for further misery. There is little remaining of the healthcare system and aid agencies such as the UN have been largely shut out by Israel.
Aya Mohammad, a 30-year-old Palestinian who, after repeated displacement, had returned with her family to Gaza City, said: “Where should we go? We have been displaced and humiliated enough. You 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.”
At least 42 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals.
Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, most of them civilians. The figure does not include the thousands believed to be buried under rubble or the thousands killed indirectly as a consequence of the war.
