Israel approves plan to fully occupy Gaza through military force

August 8, 2025 by News Desk

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Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to militarily occupy Gaza City and take full control of the enclave, in what Palestinians view as another stage of a decades-long process of displacement and domination.

The decision, reached after an all-night meeting, comes despite warnings from within the Israeli military that such a move could entangle forces in prolonged urban combat and further endanger hostages still held in Gaza.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023. UN agencies and humanitarian groups believe the true number is higher, with many bodies still under rubble and others dying from hunger and disease. Over half of the dead are women and children. In recent days alone, dozens have been killed while seeking food aid or in airstrikes on residential areas, and nearly two hundred people, including ninety-six children, have died from malnutrition since the start of the conflict.

Under the newly approved plan, Israeli forces intend to push civilians out of Gaza City toward designated evacuation zones in the south, where additional aid distribution centres would be set up. However, humanitarian agencies warn that access to food, water and medical supplies remains critically limited, with the United Nations reporting a sharp rise in acute malnutrition among children.

For Palestinians, the move is not seen as an isolated military decision but as part of a historical continuum dating back to the Nakba of 1948, the Israeli occupation of Gaza after the 1967 war, and the ongoing blockade since 2007.

Many believe this latest step signals not only a deepening of the current conflict but a long-term bid to control Gaza’s land and people, raising fears about the future of more than a million displaced residents.

Since 1947, Israel has repeatedly used a pattern of military assault, mass displacement, and long-term control to take over Palestinian land. During the Nakba of 1947–48, Israeli army launched coordinated offensives on towns and villages, causing over 750,000 Palestinians to flee or be expelled.

Civilians were often driven out through direct attacks or the threat of massacres, with survivors pushed into smaller areas or refugee camps. Afterward, these depopulated areas were quickly brought under Israeli control through new settlements or military rule, with return permanently barred.

The same approach was seen after the 1967 war, when Israel captured Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Palestinian communities were displaced, their movement restricted, and land repurposed for Israeli settlements or security zones.

For many Palestinians, the current plan to clear Gaza City of its residents and relocate them to “evacuation zones” mirrors this historical blueprint, first empty the area, then impose control, and ensure that the displaced cannot reclaim their homes, turning temporary wartime measures into long-term realities.