Netanyahu to order full occupation of Gaza: Report
The Israeli prime minister has reportedly decided to try for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip.
Source: X
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly decided to try for a full occupation of the Gaza Strip, escalating the war further despite global calls for a ceasefire.
The decision to expand the offensive would push Israel Defence Forces into areas where Hamas is holding Israeli hostages.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Netanyahu’s decision to expand the offensive was made without his military chief.
“If this does not suit you, then you should resign,” Netanyahu’s office said in a message to IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir.
Netanyahu’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday (local time) to endorse the plan, the reports said.
As shock reverberates around the world over pictures of starving Palestinian children, Netanyahu also doubled down against the “bare-faced lies”.
In a video posted to X, he said the Jewish state faced vilification, like the lies of Nazi Germany and campaigns against Jews throughout history.
“They lie about us. They say that we are deliberately starving Palestinian children — that’s a bare-faced lie,” he said.
Netanyahu said Israel had allowed two million tonnes of food into Gaza, but Hamas was “looting and stealing” the aid.
“We’re committing to free Gaza from the tyranny of these terrorists,” he said.
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“Many Gazans come to us and they say ‘Help us be free. Help us be free of Hamas’ and that’s what we will do.”
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday morning that a ceasefire, the flow of aid and the release of hostages was what the world wanted.
Wong urged Netanyahu to listen to global calls for an end to the war.
She told ABC TV’s News Breakfast that Australians were horrified at the situation in Gaza.
Earlier, Netanyahu said Hamas had no interest in reaching a ceasefire deal or releasing the remaining hostages in Gaza.
Recent videos released by Hamas of emaciated hostages had only strengthened his determination to defeat the group and bring the hostages home, he said.
Israel’s foreign ministry posted an image of hostage Evyatar David comparing his skeletal body to that of his “well-fed” Hamas captor.
An image of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, who Hamas says is a victim of food blockades in Gaza. Photo: AAP
Israel believes 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with only 20 alive. Hamas has barred humanitarian organisations from having any access to them.
The UN Security Council will hold a special session on Tuesday on the situation of the hostages in Gaza.
Netanyahu said on Sunday he had asked the Red Cross to give humanitarian assistance to the hostages.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which represents most of the families of the hostages still believed to be in Gaza is scathing about Netanyahu’s handling of the crisis.
“Expanding the war endangers the lives of the hostages who are at risk of imminent death. We saw the chilling images of the hostages in the tunnels, they won’t survive more long days of horror,” it said.
The images of hostages in a state of acute malnutrition have shocked people around the world, with leaders such as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and France’s Emmanuel Macron expressing horror.
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Israel suspects Hamas deliberately brought the hostages to the brink of starvation to exert pressure on the government.
“They [Hamas] want to break us – with these horrifying videos, with the false horror propaganda it spreads across the world,” Netanyahu said.
“But we will not break.”
According to Israeli media, the government is considering military action to rescue the remaining hostages.
An unnamed Israeli official told several newspapers that Netanyahu wanted to secure their release “through decisive military victory”.
Talks with the US continued, the official said, amid signs that Hamas remains unwilling to reach a deal through indirect negotiations.
However, humanitarian aid for the Palestinian civilian population would be guaranteed, except in combat zones and areas under Hamas control.
Hamas on Sunday said it was prepared under certain conditions to allow the Red Cross to supply food and medicine to the Israeli hostages.
A spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the organisation’s military wing, said on Telegram they would respond positively to a request from the Red Cross.
However, Israel must enable the comprehensive and permanent supply of aid for the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip.
Israel must also cease all aerial reconnaissance during the period in which help reaches the hostages, Hamas said.
Six more people had died of starvation or malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, its health ministry said as Israel said it allowed a delivery of fuel to the enclave.
The new deaths raised the toll from what international humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine to 175, including 93 children, since the war began, the ministry said.
Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said two trucks carrying 107 tonnes of diesel were set to enter Gaza, months after Israel severely restricted aid access to the enclave before easing it slightly as starvation began to spread.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that co-ordinates aid, said four tankers of UN fuel had entered to help run hospitals, bakeries, public kitchens and other essential services.
Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza but, in response to a rising international uproar, last week announced steps to let more aid reach the population. They include pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
UN agencies say airdrops are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and open up access to the territory to prevent starvation among its 2.2 million people, most of whom are displaced in vast swathes of rubble.
