‘Netanyahu’s government wants no state of Palestine left to recognise’
Benjamin Netanyahu is accelerating his plans for Israel forces to take control of all of Gaza – despite pushback from across the globe, and inside his own country. Why now, and can he be trusted when he says he has no intention of occupying the region?
Listen to this article
Read time: 5 mins
In brief…
- Israel is accelerating its assault on Gaza, after taking control of parts of Gaza City outskirts and demanding its remaining citizens evacuate. Benjamin Netanyahu says this is where remaining Hamas fighters are located.
- Benjamin Netanyahu says his only goal is to establish a “security belt” between Israel and Palestine.
- PBS correspondent Leila Molana Allen tells The News Agents that Netanyahu’s timeline may have been sped up to destroy Gaza City before Palestine is recognised by more nations in September – which she says amounts to ethnic cleansing.
What’s the story?
More than a million people are believed to remain in Gaza City. All of them have been told to evacuate by Israel.
Benjamin Netanyahu's forces have claimed a hold on the outskirts of the city, as the Israeli leader puts into plan his goal to take control of all of Gaza.
Netanyahu's actions have been widely condemned by the international community, an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant on war crime charges is still active and mass demonstrations have taken place in his own country against continued military action and destruction of Gaza.
Instead, he is now "shortening the timelines" on his Gaza plans, claiming that Gaza City is one of the "last terror strongholds" in the region.
According to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry, an estimated 62,000 people have been killed by IDF forces in Gaza since October 7 2023, when Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people at a music festival in Israel.
Israel has called on around 60,000 reservist IDF soldiers to join its military offensive and achieve its goals in Gaza.
What has Benjamin Netanyahu said?
Netanyahu has denied claims of genocide in Gaza, saying Israel could have done this in "one afternoon" if it wanted, and said he does not seek to "occupy or settle Gaza", during an interview with right-wing podcast, Triggernometry.
Earlier this month, his government approved plans to take control of Gaza City.
The Israeli Prime Minister says he aims to secure a "security belt" between Israel and Gaza.
Why is Netanyahu targeting Gaza City now?
Gaza City is where most businesses were, it was the region’s capital of industry and was home to its biggest hospitals.
Much of that, Leila Molana Allen, Special Correspondent for PBS Newshour, who has focused on reporting from the Middle East, tells The News Agents is no longer there – along with 90% of all housing in the city.
"It is difficult to know exactly how many people are in Gaza City, because there's been so much displacement over the last 21 months
"Not much aid has got into Gaza at all over the last few months, but what there has been is in the south, so people living up in the north, in Gaza City, are facing utterly dire conditions," Molana Allen says.
"There are air strikes happening all around so you are targeting an already incredibly vulnerable population."
Israel recently claimed most remaining Hamas fighters were based in Deir al-Balah, before starting a military assault on the region, one where many NGO operate from. Now it says they are in Gaza City, which is why Netanyahu says his troops need to attack now.
But Molana Allen believes this may not be the truth.
"Many suspect the real reason is that now Israel has declared it wants to have permanent security control over Gaza, they want to take the capital city, or very possibly damage it beyond repair," she says.
"Certainly they want the power to move as many people down to the south as possible, which has long been their state objective.
"Israel says it wants to set up what they call a humanitarian camp, but many in the international community say it would be an internment camp."
She also claims Netanyahu may be moving now because of the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting in September, where countries including the UK, Canada and France will recognise Palestine as a state.
"There is a suspicion among many that those on the Israeli right, who want to have control over Gaza and are certainly against any form of two state solution in the future, want there to be no possibility for a state to exist any longer in Gaza," she adds.
This, she claims, would be nothing short of ethnic cleansing.
"One of the methods of ethnic cleansing is to make somewhere unliveable.
"You remove food, you remove water, you move access to health care, and you remove any buildings.”
"Driving people out because they can't survive there, you are conducting ethnic cleansing."
Many people in Gaza have already been moved to Al-Mawasi on the coast of Southern Gaza, where they are living in "sweltering conditions" in tents, and Molana Allen says they are threatened by armed IDF with guns if they attempt to enter the sea to fish, or for “respite” from the heat.
What next for the people of Gaza?
Molana Allen says the continual displacement means any systems people in Gaza set up in an area – distribution of medical supplies, food or other aid – is lost in the move.
“What they're facing already is so horrifying,” she says.
“Many of these people have been displaced numerous times through the war.
“Many are injured from having been hit by air strikes, either on buildings they've been in or tents they've been living in.”
Hamas, which she describes as an "ideology" as much as a group, has agreed to a US-proposed ceasefire deal, in which it would return half of the 50 remaining hostages believed inside Gaza – 20 of which are believed to be alive – in two stages during a preliminary 60-day truce, as negotiations on a permanent ceasefire begins.
Israel has not yet responded to the offer, but Netanyahu's office said last week that it would only accept a deal if "all the hostages are released in one go".