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Australia warns Israel ‘not to go down this path’
Australia urged Israel “not to go down this path,” saying it would “only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said permanent forced displacement was a violation of international law, and that Australia continued to call for a ceasefire, the return of hostages and the unimpeded flow of aid.
“A two-state solution is the only pathway to secure an enduring peace — a Palestinian state and the State of Israel, living side-by-side in peace and security within internationally-recognized borders,” she said in a statement.
Australia, where tens of thousands of people joined a pro-Palestinian march Sunday on Sydney Harbour Bridge, is poised to follow Britain, Canada and France in recognizing Palestinian statehood.
Israeli offensive in Gaza City could displace thousands more
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Gaza City, which before the war was the largest in the enclave, has already been targeted by multiple Israeli bombings and raids. Much of it has already been destroyed.
Before the start of the war, Gaza City was home to about 700,000 people, about the population of Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the city after being told to evacuate early in the war, but many have returned. It is unclear how many are living there now.
Israel already controls and has largely destroyed around 75% of Gaza, with most of the population of 2 million Palestinians now sheltering in Gaza City, the central city of Deir al-Balah and the sprawling displacement camps in the Muwasi area along the coast.
An Israeli offensive in Gaza City could displace tens of thousands more people and make it even more difficult to deliver humanitarian aid.
U.S. ambassador deferred to Israel on plans for Gaza
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee recently deferred to Israel’s government about whether to take over Gaza.
“It’s not our job to tell them what they should or should not do,” Huckabee told CBS News in an interview yesterday. “Certainly, if they ask for wisdom, counsel, advice, I’m sure the president would offer it. But ultimately, it’s the decision that the Israelis and only the Israelis can make.”
Asked about the families of hostages who oppose an expansion into Gaza, including one family that said it would be a “death sentence,” Huckabee said: “Families have different views of what should be done, what could be done.”
On Monday, officials from Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that he had decided to “occupy all of the Gaza Strip, including areas where hostages may be held.” The plan announced today stops short of a full occupation.
Satellite images show Israel building up forces for a possible ground invasion of Gaza, sources say
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Reporting from Washington
Commercial satellite images show the Israeli military building up troops and equipment near the border with Gaza that would support a possible new ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, according to three U.S. officials and a former official who viewed the imagery.
The images show troop movements and formations that the four sources recognized as signs of an imminent major ground operation.
Israel’s security Cabinet approved a plan early Friday to take over Gaza City, citing Netanyahu’s office. The plan falls short of the full occupation of Gaza that Netanyahu had discussed earlier.
If there is a new military operation, it could include efforts to retrieve hostages held by Hamas and expand humanitarian assistance in areas outside the fighting, the three U.S. officials and a person briefed on Israeli discussions said. Israeli troops have been conducting ground operations in Gaza since Oct. 27, 2023, with pauses during two ceasefires.
Read the full story here.
Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel doesn’t plan to ‘keep’ Gaza
Netanyahu told Fox News earlier Thursday that Israel intends to take control of Gaza but not for the long term.
“We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body,” he told the network. “We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life. That’s not possible with Hamas.”
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that “the Israeli occupation seeks to break the will of the Palestinian people through more bloodshed and destruction of homes.” He said “it will fail.”
Read the full story here.
Israel’s full statement on plan to take over Gaza City
Israel said Friday morning local time that it plans to take over Gaza City, escalating its war with Hamas even as it faces growing international calls to end the 22-month conflict.
Here’s the full statement from Netanyahu’s office following approval of the plan:
The Security Cabinet has approved the Prime Minister’s proposal for defeating Hamas.
The IDF will prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones.
The Security Cabinet — by majority vote — adopted the five principles for concluding the war:
1. The disarming of Hamas.
2. The return of all the hostages — the living and the deceased.
3. The demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
4. Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip.
5. The establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
A decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the Security Cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages.
Prime Minister of Israel X account
