Israel’s Gaza seizure plan another calamity – UN
A senior United Nations official has warned the UN Security Council (UNSC) that Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City risked “another calamity” in the Gaza Strip with far-reaching consequences. This is coming after a report that five more people in Gaza died from starvation – bringing the overall toll to 217, including 100 children. UN Assistant […]
Demonstrators hold placards as they take part in the march for hostages at Downing Street in London, on Sunday Photo: AP/Alberto Pezzali
A senior United Nations official has warned the UN Security Council (UNSC) that Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City risked “another calamity” in the Gaza Strip with far-reaching consequences.
This is coming after a report that five more people in Gaza died from starvation – bringing the overall toll to 217, including 100 children.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas Miroslav Jenca on Sunday told an emergency weekend meeting that if implemented, the plan could result in the displacement of all civilians from Gaza City by October 7, 2025, affecting some 800,000 people, many of them already previously displaced.
This “will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings and destruction, compounding the unbearable suffering of the population,” Jenca said.
The director of the coordination division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the “unacceptable catastrophe” unfolding in Gaza must be brought to an end as he addressed the UN Security Council via videolink on Sunday.
Ramesh Rajasingham expressed concern over “the prolonged conflict, the reports of atrocities and further human toll that is likely to unfold following the government of Israel’s decision to expand military operations in Gaza.”
Israel has blocked all but a trickle of aid from entering Gaza for months and has prevented UN workers from accessing and distributing lifesaving assistance. “The UN has a plan and the systems in place to respond. We’ve said this before, and we will say it again and again: Let us work,” Rajasingham said.
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the UNSC that Israel was aiming for “the destruction of the Palestinian people through forced transfer and massacres to facilitate its annexation of our land.”
“What will force Israel to change course is our ability to transform justified condemnation into just actions… History will judge us all,” he said.
Foreign powers slam Israel
Foreign powers, including some of Israel’s allies, have slammed Israel’s plan. The United Kingdom, a close ally of Israel which nonetheless pushed for an emergency meeting on the crisis, warned that the Israeli plan risked prolonging the conflict.
“It will only deepen the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This is not a path to resolution. It is a path to more bloodshed,” the British Deputy Ambassador to the UN James Kariuki said.
France’s Deputy Permanent UN Representative Jay Dharmadhikari condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the plan, which he said would have “dramatic humanitarian consequences” for civilians already “living in horrifying conditions.”
“The images of children dying of hunger or civilians being targeted as they tried to find food are unbearable,” Dharmadhikari said, urging Israel to comply with international humanitarian law.
The UK, Denmark, France, Greece and Slovenia issued a joint statement asking Israel “to urgently reverse this decision and not to implement” the plan, saying it violates international law.
In a separate statement, the foreign ministers of Spain, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal and Slovenia warned that Israel’s seizing Gaza City would be “a major obstacle to implementing the two-state solution, the only path towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”
Israel to ‘finish the job’ in Gaza
Despite the international backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained defiant over the plan to seize Gaza’s largest urban centre, which was approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Friday.
“The timeline that we set for the action is fairly quickly,” Netanyahu told a news conference in Jerusalem on Sunday. “I don’t want to talk about exact timetables, but we’re talking in terms of a fairly short timetable because we want to bring the war to an end.”
He said Israel had “no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas”, given the group’s refusal to lay down its arms. Hamas said it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state was established.
Netanyahu said the military had been given the green light to “dismantle” what he described as two remaining Hamas strongholds: Gaza City in the north and al-Mawasi further to the south.
“This is the best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily,” he said. “We will do so by first enabling the civilian population to safely leave the combat areas to designated safe zones.”
While the prime minister stressed that these “safe zones” would be given “ample food, water, and medical care”, guards at the controversial Israel- and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), purportedly established to deliver aid to the starving Palestinian population, have routinely opened fire on the aid seekers, killing dozens at a time.
Asked about the growing criticism targeting his cabinet’s decision, Netanyahu said the country was prepared to fight alone. “We will win the war, with or without the support of others,” he said.
The United States, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UNSC, has so far shielded its staunch ally from any practical measures of UN censure. Netanyahu said he had not yet spoken with US President Donald Trump since Israel’s cabinet approved the expanded war plan, but intended to do so soon.
The Government Media Office in Gaza said only 1,210 aid trucks have entered Gaza over the past 14 days. Officials said this represents just 14 per cent of the territory’s minimum actual needs of 8,400 trucks.
Protesters rally in Israel, UK
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets across Israel and the United Kingdom to rally against the situation in Gaza.
Protesters in Israel were on the street to oppose the government’s plan to expand its military operation in Gaza.
Protesters, including family members of 50 hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are still thought to be alive, fear the plan puts the lives of hostages at risk, and urged the government to secure their release.
A group representing families of the hostages said on X: “Expanding the fighting endangers the hostages and the soldiers – the people of Israel are not willing to risk them!”
One protester, Shakha, rallying in Jerusalem on Saturday, told the BBC: “We want the war to end because our hostages are dying there, and we need them all to be home now.”
“Whatever it takes to do, we need to do it. And if it needs to stop the war, we’ll stop the war.”
Among the protesters in Jerusalem was a former soldier who told the BBC he is now refusing to serve. Max Kresch said he was a combat soldier at the beginning of the war and “has since refused.”
“We’re over 350 soldiers who served during the war, and we’re refusing to continue to serve in Netanyahu’s political war that endangers the hostages (and) starving innocent Palestinians in Gaza,” he said.
The Times of Israel reported that family members of hostages and soldiers at a protest in Tel Aviv near the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) headquarters called on other soldiers to refuse to serve in the expanded military operation to protect hostages.
The mother of one of the hostages has called for a general strike in Israel, and the main opposition leader, Yair Lapid, said it would be a “justified and worthy” response.
During Saturday night’s demonstrations, Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway was blocked by protesters who lit bonfires.
Netanyahu has also faced strong opposition from the army’s Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, who, according to Israeli media, had warned the prime minister that a full occupation of Gaza was “tantamount to walking into a trap” and would endanger the living hostages.
Polls suggest most of the Israeli public favour a deal with Hamas for the release of the hostages and the end of the war.
On the other hand, relatives of Israeli hostages seized on October 7 rallied Sunday with supporters in London, demanding their release and criticising the UK government’s decision to potentially recognise a Palestinian state next month.
Organisers of Stop the Hate UK and several Jewish organisations said the march and rally at Downing Street was, in part, aimed at urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to prioritise the release of the remaining hostages.
Out of 251 hostages captured during militant group Hamas’s 2023 attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27, the Israeli military says, are dead.
It comes after Starmer announced on July 30 that the UK will formally recognise the State of Palestine in September unless Israel takes various “substantive steps”, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.
The UK leader also detailed several demands for Hamas, including releasing all the hostages, but has not said that that is a precondition for the UK recognition step.
Israel has condemned the UK’s announcement and earlier this week said it intends to launch a new offensive in the territory to control Gaza City.
Hostages’ family members have also criticised the UK move, in particular the apparent decision not to make Palestinian statehood recognition conditional on their release.
Noga Guttman, the cousin of 24-year-old hostage Evyatar David, was among the hundreds to attend Sunday’s London event, according to organisers.