Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told his ministers this week that he will seek cabinet approval for a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip. According to reports in the Israeli media, several ministers said Netanyahu used the term "occupation of the Strip" in private conversations describing his plan. One anonymous official was quoted as saying: "The die is cast—we are going for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip." Referring to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who is said to oppose such plans, the official added: "If the chief of staff doesn’t agree, he should resign." (ToI [12])
These reports come as more than a dozen former senior Israeli security officials issued a joint video message with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that it has become damaging to Israel's own national interests. The message was accompanied by an open letter to US President Donald Trump calling upon him to pressure Netanyahu to instate a ceasefire. The figures include former prime minister and IDF chief Ehud Barak [13]; former IDF chiefs of staff Moshe Ya'alon [13] and Dan Halutz [14]; former Shin Bet directors Nadav Argaman, Yoram Cohen, Ami Ayalon, Yaakov Peri and Carmi Gillon; former Mossad chiefs Tamir Pardo, Efraim Halevy [15] and Danny Yatom; and former Israel Police commissioners Dudi Cohen, Moshe Karadi, Rafi Peled and Assaf Hefetz. (ToI [16], i24 [17])
This also comes amid a deepening of the ongoing political crisis [18] in Israel, with the cabinet voting unanimously Aug. 4 to dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara from office, following her pursuance of corruption invesitgations into Netanyahu's government. Her removal was immediately frozen by the High Court until the justices can rule on its legality. In a statement after the vote, Baharav-Miara called her dismissal "unlawful." (ToI [19])
The day before the order to remove her, thousands of people gathered outside Baharav-Miara's home in a show of support, protesting what they called the "llegal attempt to remove her by those seeking to dismantle Israeli democracy." (JP [20])
Meanwhile, daily carnage and growing hunger continue in the Strip. There is outrage in Israel as videos were released by Hamas and Palestinian Islaic Jihad showing two of the hostages [18] appearing dangerously emaciated. But Hamas denied that it intentionally starves prisoners, saying hostages eat what their fighters and people eat amid a hunger crisis in Gaza. (BBC News [21], NewsHour [22])
At least 87 Palestinians—including 52 people seeking aid—were killed and 644 others injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, the enclave's health ministry said Aug. 5. (MEE [23]) The United Nations says more than 1,300 people have been killed trying to obtain aid supplies in the enclave since the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF [24]) began operating in May, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites. (ToI [25])
At least 27 were reportedly killed by Israeli forces while trying to get food, and six others died from starvation or malnutrition in Gaza, on Aug. 3. That same day, Israel's far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir [26], led a group of some 1,200 Israeli Jews in prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, which was protested by the Palestinian Authority as a "dangerous escalation." The group gathered at the compound under the protection of the Israeli military. (TG [27], TG [28])
Ben-Gvir is a leading advocate of "transfer [29]" of the entire Palestinian population from Gaza. Druing his al-Aqsa visit, he openly called on Israel to "fully occupy" and "declare full sovereignty" over the Gaza Strip. (DW [30])
Such extremist rhetoric [31] of course loans credence to claims of Israel's genocidal intent [24] in Gaza.
The president of Ireland has now broached United Nations military intervention [32] to save lives in Gaza. President Michael Higgins called on the UN to invoke Chapter 7 [33] of its charter to deploy troops into the war zone to secure relief corridors. (RTÉ News [34])
