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TEL AVIV: Israel’s Security Cabinet has approved a plan to take over Gaza City, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. The decision taken early Friday marks another escalation of Israel’s 22-month offensive launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
The war has already killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroyed much of Gaza and pushed the territory of some 2 million Palestinians toward famine.
Ahead of the Security Cabinet meeting, which began Thursday and ran through the night, Netanyahu said Israel planned to retake control over the entire territory and eventually hand it off to friendly Arab forces opposed to Hamas.
The announced plans stop short of that, perhaps reflecting the reservations of Israel’s top general, who reportedly warned that 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. Many families of hostages are also opposed, fearing further escalation will doom their loved ones.
Israel has repeatedly bombarded Gaza City and carried out numerous raids there, only to return to different neighborhoods again and again as militants regrouped. Today it is one of the few areas of Gaza that hasn’t been turned into an Israeli buffer zone or placed under evacuation orders.

A major ground operation there could displace tens of thousands of people and further disrupt efforts to deliver food to the territory.
It’s unclear how many people reside in the city, which was Gaza’s largest before the war. Hundreds of thousands fled Gaza City under evacuation orders in the opening weeks of the war but many returned during a ceasefire at the start of this year.

Expanding war risks countless lives and could further isolate Israel
Expanding military operations in Gaza would put the lives of countless Palestinians and the roughly 20 remaining Israeli hostages at risk while further isolating Israel internationally. Israel already controls around three quarters of the devastated territory.
Families of hostages held in Gaza fear an escalation could doom their loved ones, and some protested outside the Security Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. Former top Israeli security officials have also come out against the plan, warning of a quagmire with little added military benefit.
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 pending a formal decision, said that whatever is approved would be implemented gradually to increase pressure on Hamas.
Israel’s air and ground war has killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza, displaced most of the population, destroyed vast areas and caused severe and widespread hunger. Palestinians are braced for further misery.
“There is nothing left to occupy,” said Maysaa Al-Heila, who is living in a displacement camp. “There is no Gaza left.”
At least 42 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals.
 

‘We don’t want to keep it’
Asked in an interview with Fox News ahead of the Security Cabinet meeting if Israel would “take control of all of Gaza,” Netanyahu replied: “We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza.”
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter,” Netanyahu said in the interview. “We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life.”
The Security Cabinet, which would need to approve such a decision, began meeting Thursday evening, according to Israeli media, and it was expected to stretch into the night.
Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, warned against occupying Gaza, saying it would endanger the hostages and put further strain on the military after nearly two years of war, according to Israeli media reports.
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals but 50 remain inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.
Almost two dozen relatives of hostages set sail from southern Israel toward the maritime border with Gaza on Thursday, where they broadcast messages from loudspeakers.
Yehuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier held in Gaza, said from the boat that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to satisfy extremists in his governing coalition. Netanyahu’s far-right allies want to escalate the war, relocate most of Gaza’s population to other countries and reestablish Jewish settlements that were dismantled in 2005.
“Netanyahu is working only for himself,” Cohen said.

Palestinians killed and wounded as they seek food
Israel’s military offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians. The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals who keep and share detailed records.
The United Nations and independent experts view the ministry’s figures as the most reliable estimate of casualties. Israel has disputed them without offering a toll of its own.
Of the 42 people killed on Thursday, at least 13 were seeking aid in an Israeli military zone in southern Gaza where UN aid convoys are regularly overwhelmed by looters and desperate crowds. Another two were killed on roads leading to nearby sites run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American contractor, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.
GHF said there were no violent incidents at or near its sites on Thursday. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The military zone, known as the Morag Corridor, is off limits to independent media.

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks while heading to GHF sites and in chaotic scenes around UN convoys, most of which are overwhelmed by looters and crowds of hungry people. The UN human rights office, witnesses and health officials say Israeli forces have regularly opened fire toward the crowds going back to May, when Israel lifted a complete 2 1/2 month blockade.
The military says it has only fired warning shots when crowds approach its forces. GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired into the air on some occasions to prevent deadly stampedes.
Israel and GHF face mounting criticism
Doctors Without Borders, a medical charity known by its French acronym MSF, published a blistering report denouncing the GHF distribution system. “This is not aid. It is orchestrated killing, ” it said.
MSF runs two health centers very close to GHF sites in southern Gaza and said it had treated 1,380 people injured near the sites between June 7 and July 20, including 28 people who were dead upon arrival. Of those, at least 147 had suffered gunshot wounds — including at least 41 children.
MSF said hundreds more suffered physical assault injuries from chaotic scrambles for food at the sites, including head injuries, suffocation, and multiple patients with severely aggravated eyes after being sprayed at close range with pepper spray. It said the cases it saw were only a fraction of the overall casualties connected to GHF sites; a nearby Red Cross field hospital has independently reported receiving thousands of people wounded by gunshots as they sought aid.
“The level of mismanagement, chaos and violence at GHF distribution sites amounts to either reckless negligence or a deliberately designed death trap,” the report said.
GHF said the “accusations are both false and disgraceful” and accused MSF of “amplifying a disinformation campaign” orchestrated by Hamas.
The US and Israel helped set up the GHF system as an alternative to the UN-run aid delivery system that has sustained Gaza for decades, accusing Hamas of siphoning off assistance. The UN denies any mass diversion by Hamas. It accuses GHF of forcing Palestinians to risk their lives to get food and say it advances Israel’s plans for further mass displacement.

AMMAN: Gaza’s beachfront was once a lifeline for Palestinians — a place where cafes bustled, fishermen hauled in their catch, and people living under a 17-year siege could cling to a fragile sense of normalcy.

Today, the view from high overhead aboard a Royal Jordanian Air Force flight dropping aid onto the war-ravaged enclave shows that little of this once-vibrant seaside community now remains.

Nearly two years of intense Israeli bombardment have left Gaza in ruins. Many blocks are filled with crumbling buildings and piles of ash-gray rubble, while other neighborhoods have been erased entirely, leaving behind empty voids. 

Along the shoreline, tents are now scattered where homes once stood, sheltering families displaced by the fighting.

Arab News joined one of the near-daily humanitarian flights, which the Jordanian Armed Forces resumed on July 27 in coordination with several countries, to drop aid over Gaza in response to reports of rising starvation.

From the air, people and cars could be seen moving through the rubble-strewn streets below — a stark glimpse of how Palestinians continue to navigate daily life amid devastation with little to no access to food, water, shelter, or medicine.

Despite the routine humanitarian missions, crew members say comprehending the view from above never gets any easier.

“It’s heartbreaking,” one crew member told Arab News as he helped load the C-130 military aircraft set to depart from King Abdullah II Air Base near Zarqa. “It hits us the same way every day. Seeing the destruction in real life is nothing like watching it on TV, especially when you see the people on the ground.”

Flying over Gaza after about nine months of suspended operations showed just how much the destruction has worsened since the first round of airdrops last year, he said.

On Wednesday, seven aircraft — two from Jordan, two from Germany, and one each from the UAE, France, and Belgium — took off from the air base in Amman, dropping 54 tons of medical supplies, food, and baby formula over Gaza from an altitude of about 2,500 feet.

Humanitarian organizations say airdrops offer only a tiny fraction of what is needed to sustain the 2.2 million people in Gaza, where the UN warned of an “unfolding famine.”

The situation in Gaza deteriorated after Israel blocked all aid shipments for two and a half months following the collapse of a six-week ceasefire in March. Since it eased the blockade in late May, Israel has allowed in a trickle of UN aid trucks — about 70 a day on average, according to official Israeli figures.

That is far below the 500 to 600 trucks a day that UN agencies say are needed. The aid, which was dropped on Wednesday, is equivalent to less than three.

While military officials confirmed that the aid provided through airdrops is insufficient, they believe what they are doing is making a difference.

“We are proud that we are able to support with whatever we can. It’s our humanitarian duty,” one crew member told Arab News.

A ground operations supervisor said Jordan’s role in leading international aid efforts fills him with pride.

“Our teams work around the clock, and we are proud of the tremendous effort being made on the ground,” he told Arab News. “We feel like we are doing something, regardless how minimal, to help people living in heartbreaking conditions.”

Since the airdrops resumed, 379 tons of aid have been delivered, according to military data. So far, the Jordanian Armed Forces has carried out 142 missions, in addition to 299 joint airdrops conducted in coordination with Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, and Spain.

Israel began allowing airdrops in response to growing international pressure over the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza. The measures include daily 10-hour pauses in fighting across three densely populated areas — Deir Al-Balah, Gaza City, and Al-Mawasi — along with the opening of limited humanitarian corridors to allow UN aid convoys into the strip.

Despite these efforts, people in Gaza are continuing to succumb to starvation. According to local authorities, 188 Palestinians, including 94 children, have died from hunger since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza, instead blaming any shortages on Hamas for allegedly stealing aid or on the UN for distribution failures. On July 28, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X: “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza. There is no starvation in Gaza.”

The hunger crisis is worsened by the deadly conditions surrounding aid distribution through four centers operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US and Israeli-backed logistics startup.

Since their establishment in May, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access aid, according to UN estimates. The foundation has repeatedly denied these accusations.

Israel is now facing renewed pressure to fully reopen land crossings and allow uninterrupted aid convoys to enter, as humanitarian groups stress that airdrops, while better than nothing, are no substitute for coordinated, large-scale deliveries by land.

With no precision or coordination, airdrops tend to end up in the hands of whoever reaches them first rather than the most needy. Aid groups say airdrops can also pose a threat to life, landing on civilians or causing stampedes as desperate people rush to collect relief.

However, a military official told Arab News the airdrops have the added advantage of reaching areas that are now inaccessible by road.

“Some neighborhoods are flattened to the ground. The road infrastructure in Gaza is destroyed. Therefore, we can reach areas that lorries cannot,” the official said.

Flights are carried out with international missions to drop the aid at designated points across northern, central, and southern Gaza.

On the Jordanian flight, each pallet was packed, sealed, and divided into half-ton units. Each box was packed with a mix of aid — including food, medicine, and baby formula — to meet the diverse needs of the people it would reach.

Asked how long the air drops are likely to continue, a senior army official told Arab News: “As long as we have the capability.”

After takeoff at 11 a.m., the air force crew shouted instructions over the deafening roar of the C-130 aircraft, coordinating with the pilot and with each other through headphones.

At noon, Gaza’s landscape came into view along the wide stretch of shoreline. The journalists on board, who have long been barred from entering Gaza to report from the ground, were instructed not to photograph the devastation below.

Ten minutes later, the plane descended to a lower altitude. The rear doors opened to reveal the vast, ravaged landscape. A countdown began before eight pallets, each weighing a ton, were released in two batches, parachuting into the unknown over Gaza.

“This is for you, Gaza. May God help you,” one crew member murmured, embracing his colleague as the aid disappeared from view.

Then the doors closed. The aircraft turned back toward Amman, leaving behind only questions. Who would reach the aid first? Who would carry a box of food or medicine home to their family? Who would be left to wait for the next drop? Would another drop arrive?