Australia urges Israel not to ‘go down path’ of military control of Gaza

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has urged Israel “not to go down this path”, after Israel’s security cabinet backed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan for a military takeover of Gaza City.

In a statement issued soon after the Israeli government’s announcement on Friday, Wong said the move “will only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza”.

“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 recognised borders,” she said.

Israeli opposition leader says move to occupy Gaza City a ‘disaster’

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has labelled a decision by Israel’s security cabinet to back Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to occupy Gaza City a “disaster that will lead to many more disasters”.

Lapid said far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had “dragged Netanyahu into a move that will take many months, lead to the deaths of hostages and soldiers, cost tens of billions for the Israeli taxpayer, and result in a diplomatic collapse”.

“This is exactly what Hamas wanted: for Israel to be trapped in the territory without a goal, without defining the picture of the day after, in a pointless occupation that no one understands where it is leading,” he said.

Gaza City occupation plan ‘formalises’ situation that exists on the ground

Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera earlier that the plan to occupy Gaza City had been expected and the operation would likely not change the situation much from what exists currently on the ground in the war-torn enclave.

“Israel controls all of Gaza, from all the borders in the air and sea. It is already totally in control of anything that comes in and out of Gaza – the very little they allow in. So this just formalises, a little bit, the nature of the Israeli presence,” Khouri told Al Jazeera.

“It means they are going to go into some of the areas where there are still dense urban conglomerations of people in Gaza City and in the centre of the Strip,” Khouri said.

The plan is not “a big difference from the situation that already exists”, he said.

“Israel controls about 80, 85 percent of all of Gaza now,” he added.

The big difference is solidifying the plans to stay there. Which is exactly what prevents any ceasefire deal from happening, Israel is formalizing its occupation of Gaza, ruling out any retreat for a ceasefire.

No Arab government will partner with Netanyahu over Gaza, says Hamas

Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he doesn’t want Israel to govern Gaza, but rather to hand it over to an unspecified third party that will not threaten Israel.

When asked about those remarks, senior Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said no Arab government will now want to partner with Israel due to its relentless and deadly war on Gaza.

Potential occupation triggers panic among Gaza City residents who remember life before 2005

Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City has not yet translated into practice on the ground, maybe as Israel is still preparing to launch this wide-scale military incursion into the central areas of Gaza City.

The occupation will completely shift the daily life here from destruction and hardship to full domination.

People are expecting that we will see military checkpoints, we will see Israeli tanks inside the heart of the city, and the residents will have to ask for Israeli military permission to fetch food and water.

The potential occupation triggers a huge deal of fear and panic among people here because they know what life under occupation looks like.

I remember the situation before 2005, before unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the territory. There were constant home raids and arrests, similar to what is taking place in the occupied West Bank.

Turmoil expected in Israel amid Gaza strategy backlash and economic woes

Israeli political analyst Akiva Eldar says Netanyahu’s plan to occupy Gaza City will throw his country into further turmoil.

“You will see in the next few days, hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the streets demonstrating against it. You will see more and more soldiers, reservists, refusing to be drafted, while we are also witnessing the Orthodox community blocking the roads,” Eldar told Al Jazeera.

“What we see now in Israel is complete chaos, both economically, militarily and socially,” he said, adding that there is a growing sense of frustration also within the military establishment since there is no clear exit strategy from Gaza.

“There is no chance to bring the captives alive back to their families, more Israelis will be killed and many Israelis are calling to stop the war [because] it’s immoral,” Eldar said. “It’s immoral, the starvation, it’s immoral to make more war crimes after so long and after so many war crimes that Israel has been doing in Gaza.”

US seems to have approved Israeli plan to occupy Gaza City

Sultan Barakat, a senior professor in public policy at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, has told Al Jazeera that Israeli plans to occupy Gaza City started to materialise in late February, early March.

“There were many things that paved the way for this, including the cutting of the international aid to the Palestinians, then the creation of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with the four specific points to attract Palestinians to walk to the aid, to displace them into those areas,” he said.

Barakat added that “the new and dangerous part” is that the plan was announced after the visit of US envoy Steve Witkoff to Israel.

“We can only assume that he approved the plan and the United States is backing it up,” he said.

“It could be that Israel is rushing to bring an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu is working towards a soft deadline in the form of September when many countries are threatening to recognise the Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly,” Barakat added.

Netanyahu aligns himself with most far-right elements of government

The ground was laid a few days before with all the leaks in Israeli media about the possibility of occupying Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went against his own military chief of staff, the families of the captives and growing public opinion, who have had enough of the war and are beginning to wonder about the aims of all these moves.

He aligned himself with the far-right elements of the government, mainly Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have been calling for the occupation of Gaza, along with the settler movement, ever since the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack on southern Israeli on October 7, 2023.

This is going to be a very difficult operation for the prime minister.

His chief of staff has told him again and again that after 22 months of war, the troops are tired, the reservists are also tired, and that they would have to redeploy troops from elsewhere, including the occupied West Bank or the border with Lebanon or in Syria.

UN rights chief calls for immediate halt to Israel’s Gaza takeover plan

Israel’s plan for a complete takeover of Gaza “must be immediately halted”, UN human rights chief Volker Turk says.

Turk said the plan “runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible, to the realisation of the agreed two-State solution and to the right of Palestinians to self-determination”.

In a landmark ruling in July last year, the court declared Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, unlawful and ruled that Israel is violating the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid.

Turk also said Israel must allow “the full, unfettered flow of humanitarian aid” and Palestinian armed groups must unconditionally release their captives. He added that Israel likewise should free “Palestinians arbitrarily detained”.

Turkiye condemns Israel’s Gaza City plan, calls for international action

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has condemned in the strongest terms Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, calling on the international community and UN Security Council to act to prevent the plan’s implementation.

The ministry said Israel must immediately halt its war plans, agree a ceasefire in Gaza and start negotiations for a two-state solution.

It added that each step by Israel’s government to continue its genocide in Gaza and occupation of Palestinian lands deals a heavy blow to global security.

China urges immediate ceasefire as Israel plans to take control of Gaza City

China has expressed “serious concerns” over Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, urging it to “immediately cease its dangerous actions”.

“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people and is an inseparable part of Palestinian territory,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson told the AFP news agency.

“The correct way to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to secure the release of hostages is an immediate ceasefire,” the spokesperson added. “A complete resolution to the Gaza conflict hinges on a ceasefire. Only then can a path to de-escalation be paved and regional security ensured.”

Beijing said it is “willing to work together with the international community to help end the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible”.

Gaza City occupation plan will lead to Israel’s total isolation: Ex-Israeli diplomat

Alon Liel, former director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, says the plan to take over Gaza City will isolate Israel even further.

“We complain here that countries are recognising Palestine, but by this decision we are not recognising the whole international community [which] thinks that this war should come to an end, and Israel is doing the opposite,” Liel told Al Jazeera.

“So, I’m very sad as a diplomat that Israel is ignoring the whole world, and I am worried about the implications because it will bring to a total isolation of Israel,” Liel said.

There is a widespread feeling in Israel, the former official said, that the US would back Israeli authorities on any policies, something that “gives Israel a lot of confidence”.

Liel added that countries that are allies of Israel should speak out because “if there is an international consensus, the United States will have to pay attention to it”.

Trying the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

Israeli air strike kills one person in southern Lebanon

At least one person has been confirmed killed by Lebanon’s Health Ministry after an Israeli air strike targeted a vehicle on the road connecting Sidon and Tyre in the southern part of the country.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that an Israeli drone targeted the car in the Nabatieh district, but the Israeli army has not commented yet.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed the arrival of rescue teams to the targeted location and a car burning on the side of the road.

سيارات الإسعاف تهرع إلى مكان الغارة في الزهراني بعد اشتعال آلية "الرابيد" المستهدَفة pic.twitter.com/gdZY97lxvj

— هنا لبنان (@thisislebnews) August 8, 2025

Israel says PFLP official assassinated in Lebanon strike

The Israeli army and Shin Bet say in a joint statement that they have killed the head of the military and security department of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Syria. The strike was carried out in Lebanon, they said.

The military released an aerial video of the attack on a vehicle in the Bekaa Valley, saying it killed the “senior Syrian terrorist” who was allegedly involved with other Palestinian groups as well.

The statement identified the man as Mohammad Washah, also known as Abu Khalil, and said his predecessor was killed in an assassination in September.

Assassinations are war crimes... Every single day

Far-right Israeli protesters block trucks carrying Gaza aid at Jordan crossing

Far-right Israeli protesters have blocked trucks carrying humanitarian aid destined for Gaza for several hours at the Allenby Bridge, known in Jordan as the King Hussein Bridge, separating the occupied West Bank and Jordan.

A post on X with footage of the group said they were blocking the Jordanian trucks carrying much-needed supplies to Palestinians in Gaza this morning as aid is the “oxygen of Hamas in the fight against our soldiers”.

Far-right protesters regularly impede aid trucks crossing through Israel to reach Gaza, where an ongoing starvation crisis caused by Israel’s ongoing blockade has resulted in almost 200 deaths.

 
Two aid seekers killed at GHF site in central Gaza

We are hearing from an Al Jazeera correspondent on the ground that two Palestinians were killed while trying to get food from a distribution site run by the GHF near the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza.

Gaza’s Civil Defence warns airdropping aid risks civilian lives, urges safer delivery methods

Basal Mahmoud, Gaza’s Civil Defence spokesman, has warned international donors that airdropping aid poses great risks for civilians. The dropping of heavy parcels from the sky causes injuries and deaths when they fall on civilians in densely populated areas, Mahmoud said in a statement.

It also causes stampedes as hundreds of people gather at the sites where aid is dropped, leading to injuries, he added.

“We at the Palestinian Civil Defence call on international donor agencies and humanitarian organisations to adopt safe and organised methods for delivering aid, through land crossings and with field coordination that ensures it reaches those who deserve it without further loss of life,” he said.

Germany halts military exports that could be used in Gaza ‘until further notice’

Germany has announced it will not approve any exports of military equipment that could be used in Gaza until further notice.

The country’s priorities are the release of the captives and ceasefire negotiations, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a statement.

“The even tougher military action in the Gaza Strip decided by the Israeli cabinet last night makes it increasingly difficult for the German government to see how these goals can be achieved,” it said.

The statement also said that under such circumstances, Germany was going to temporarily halt weapons exports that could be used in the enclave.

It added that Berlin remains “deeply concerned” about the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza and, with the planned offensive, the Israeli government bears “even greater responsibility than before for providing them with supplies”.

Belgium summons Israeli envoy over Gaza City occupation plan

Belgium’s Foreign Ministry says it is summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel’s plans to “take military control” of Gaza.

“The aim is clearly to express our total disapproval of this decision, but also of the continued colonisation,” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot posted on X.

‘End BB’s war’: Protesters send message to Trump on Tel Aviv beach

Activists from Israel’s Brothers in Arms movement have organised a protest on the beach opposite the US embassy branch in Tel Aviv to call on US President Donald Trump to intervene and stop the Gaza war.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed a large banner drawn in the sand to call for an end to the war. It used a form of Netanyahu’s nickname, Bibi.

The activists called on Trump to not allow the prime minister to “neglect the hostages and endanger the lives of soldiers”, according to Israeli Channel 13.

מיצג מחאה מול שגרירות ארה"ב בתל אביב: "טראמפ - תהיה המבוגר האחראי ועצור את המלחמה"https://t.co/jHcVgxnolf
(צילום: אביב אטלס) pic.twitter.com/RqVlE2Wd3n

— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) August 8, 2025

Israeli settlers expand illegal West Bank outpost near Nablus, videos show

Videos verified by Al Jazeera show Israeli settlers using bulldozers to excavate and expand a newly established illegal settlement outpost east of Salim town near the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

Outposts are typically makeshift encampments ranging from single caravans to a few modular structures built on rural Palestinian land.

They are built by members of Israel’s wider settler movement, which seeks to enforce an Israeli presence on illegally occupied Palestinian land.

All outposts, like settlements, are illegal under international law. Israel, however, considers only the outposts illegal, claiming they were erected without government approval. Yet, outposts are often approved retroactively as settlements.