GAZA CITY OFFENSIVE

Israel plans to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and forcibly displace the residents of Gaza City from the north of the territory to the south.

The decision comes at a time when starvation has severely gripped the Gaza Strip. According to UN officials, since late May, nearly 1,400 people struggling to obtain basic food supplies have been killed through Israel’s failed food distribution. In addition, more than 500,000 people in Gaza are facing starvation, and all 320,000 children under the age of 5 are at risk of severe malnutrition.

The Israeli plan was met with condemnation from both Western and Arab countries, who warned that it would further diminish the chances of achieving a permanent ceasefire and bring nothing but more destruction and suffering.

Some reports, citing statements from Israeli officials, indicated that the plan will be implemented in phases. The first phase involves the occupation of Gaza City by displacing its roughly 1 million residents to areas Israel designates as “safe zones,” while providing what Netanyahu’s office describes as humanitarian aid to civilians outside the combat zones. Israel has bombed safe zones it has designated repeatedly over the course of its assault on Gaza; meanwhile, the current aid scheme run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been described by the UN as a “death trap.”

The mass forcible displacement will reportedly be followed by intensified airstrikes aimed at clearing the way for troops to encircle the city and conduct incursions into residential neighborhoods. Netanyahu has said that the military will also focus on occupying the refugee camps in the central Strip.

In Gaza City, most people view this plan as a continuation of Israel’s systematic strategy to replicate the devastation seen in Gaza’s northern governorate, Rafah, and Khan Younis — targeting the few remaining areas in the Strip that still have residential buildings and landmarks. This could pave the way for Israeli right-wing extremists to bring back settlements in Gaza and confine the Palestinian population to a specific area in the south, in preparation for their forced displacement outside the Strip.

Most people in Gaza City, including both evacuees and original residents who lost their homes, are now living in flimsy tents that lack basic necessities, crammed into makeshift camps set up in any available spaces — playgrounds, parks, and even along Gaza City’s beach. Others have taken shelter in schools and public institutions that have been converted into housing for displaced families, where conditions are equally harsh; in some cases, a single classroom accommodates three or four families.

The overcrowded conditions in Gaza City mean that any large-scale military invasion would trigger a humanitarian catastrophe, forcing more than 900,000 people to flee under the looming threat of massacres and a bloody invasion. They would be pushed toward the south, where evacuation orders have already covered most areas and Israeli forces have seized two of the area’s largest cities — Rafah and Khan Younis.

Displaced people have no food or clean water, and live in flimsy tents that offer no protection from the scorching sun or the cold of winter. The daily bombardments terrorize them. They are exhausted and have no energy left to face the suffering of yet another displacement.