By MELANIE LIDMAN and WAFAA SHURAFA
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned Thursday that to destroy Hamas Israel intends to take full management of the Gaza Strip and finally switch its administration to pleasant Arab forces, because the Safety Cupboard mentioned a widening of its 22-month offensive.
Requested in an interview with Fox Information if Israel would “take management of all of Gaza,” Netanyahu replied: “We intend to, to be able to guarantee our safety, take away Hamas there, allow the inhabitants to be freed from Gaza.” The Safety Cupboard would nonetheless must approve such a call.
’We don’t need to preserve it. We need to have a safety perimeter,” Netanyahu mentioned within the interview. “We need to hand it over to Arab forces that may govern it correctly with out threatening us and giving Gazans a very good life.”
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the USA, Canada and the European Union.
An Israeli official had earlier mentioned the Safety Cupboard would maintain a prolonged debate and approve an expanded army plan to beat all or elements of Gaza not but below Israeli management. The official, talking on situation of anonymity pending a proper determination, mentioned that no matter is accepted could be carried out regularly to extend stress on Hamas.
In Gaza, the place Israel’s air and floor conflict has already killed tens of hundreds of individuals, displaced a lot of the inhabitants, destroyed huge areas and brought on extreme and widespread starvation, Palestinians braced for additional distress.
“There may be nothing left to occupy,” mentioned Maysaa al-Heila, who resides in a displacement camp. “There isn’t any Gaza left.”
At the least 42 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and shootings throughout southern Gaza on Thursday, based on native hospitals.
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Palestinians carry a wounded man who was injured whereas dashing to gather humanitarian help airdropped by parachute into Gaza Metropolis, within the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Palestinians carry a wounded man who was injured whereas dashing to gather humanitarian help airdropped by parachute into Gaza Metropolis, within the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photograph/Jehad Alshrafi)
A brand new escalation might deepen Israel’s isolation
Netanyahu has been assembly this week with advisers to debate what his workplace mentioned are methods to “additional obtain Israel’s objectives in Gaza” after the breakdown of ceasefire talks final month. The Safety Cupboard assembly started Thursday night, based on Israeli media, and was anticipated to stretch into the night time.
Israel already controls about 75% of Gaza. Increasing army operations would additional isolate Israel internationally, after a number of of its closest Western allies have known as on it to finish the conflict and facilitate extra humanitarian help. In Israel, households of the hostages have known as for mass protests Thursday, fearing an escalation might doom their family members.
Hamas-led terrorists kidnapped 251 folks and killed round 1,200 within the Oct. 7, 2023, assault that triggered the conflict. Many of the hostages have been launched in ceasefires or different offers however 50 stay inside Gaza, round 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.
Virtually two dozen kin of hostages set sail from southern Israel in direction of the maritime border with Gaza on Thursday, the place they broadcast messages from loudspeakers.
Yehuda Cohen, the daddy of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier held in Gaza, mentioned from the boat that Netanyahu is prolonging the conflict to fulfill extremists in his governing coalition. Netanyahu’s far-right allies need to escalate the conflict, relocate most of Gaza’s inhabitants to different nations and reestablish Jewish settlements that have been dismantled in 2005.
“Netanyahu is working just for himself,” Cohen mentioned, pleading with the worldwide neighborhood to place stress on the prime minister to cease the conflict and save his son.
Palestinians killed and wounded as they search meals
Israel’s army offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, based on Gaza’s Well being Ministry, which doesn’t say what number of have been fighters or civilians. The ministry is a part of the Hamas-run authorities and staffed by medical professionals who preserve and share detailed information.
The United Nations and unbiased consultants view the ministry’s figures as essentially the most dependable estimate of casualties. Israel has disputed them with out providing a toll of its personal.
Of the 42 folks killed on Thursday, a minimum of 13 have been searching for help in an Israeli army zone in southern Gaza the place U.N. help convoys are recurrently overwhelmed by looters and determined crowds. One other two have been killed on roads resulting in close by websites run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Basis, an American contractor, based on Nasser Hospital, which acquired the our bodies.
GHF mentioned there have been no violent incidents at or close to its websites on Thursday. There was no rapid remark from the Israeli army. The army zone, often called the Morag Hall, is off limits to unbiased media.
Tons of of individuals have been killed in current weeks whereas heading to GHF websites and in chaotic scenes round U.N. convoys, most of that are overwhelmed by looters and crowds of hungry folks. The U.N. human rights workplace, witnesses and well being officers have provided comparable accounts of the near-daily shootings by Israeli hearth going again to Might, when Israel lifted a whole 2 1/2 month blockade.
The army says it has solely fired warning pictures when crowds strategy its forces. GHF says its armed contractors have solely used pepper spray or fired into the air on some events to forestall lethal stampedes.
Israel and GHF face mounting criticism
Human Rights Watch known as on governments worldwide to droop arms transfers to Israel after lethal airstrikes on two Palestinian schools-turned-shelters final yr.
The New York-based rights group mentioned an investigation didn’t discover any proof of a army goal at both faculty. At the least 49 folks have been killed within the airstrikes that hit the Khadija ladies’ faculty in Deir al-Balah on July 27, 2024, and the al-Zeitoun C faculty in Gaza Metropolis on Sept. 21, 2024.
Medical doctors With out Borders, a medical charity recognized by its French acronym MSF, printed a blistering report denouncing the GHF distribution system. “This isn’t help. It’s orchestrated killing, ” it mentioned.
MSF runs two well being facilities very near GHF websites in southern Gaza and mentioned it had handled 1,380 folks injured close to the websites between June 7 and July 20, together with 28 individuals who have been useless upon arrival. Of these, a minimum of 147 had suffered gunshot wounds — together with a minimum of 41 kids.
MSF mentioned a whole lot extra suffered bodily assault accidents from chaotic scrambles for meals on the websites, together with head accidents, suffocation, and a number of sufferers with severely aggravated eyes after being sprayed at shut vary with pepper spray.
It mentioned its well being facilities have been arrange for major care, not mass casualty occasions, and the circumstances it noticed have been solely a fraction of the general casualties related to GHF websites. It mentioned the extra severely wounded are largely taken on to hospitals or a close-by Pink Cross subject hospital, which has independently reported receiving hundreds of individuals wounded by gunshots as they sought help.
“The extent of mismanagement, chaos and violence at GHF distribution websites quantities to both reckless negligence or a intentionally designed loss of life entice,” the report mentioned.
GHF mentioned the “accusations are each false and disgraceful” and accused MSF of “amplifying a disinformation marketing campaign” orchestrated by Hamas.
The U.S. and Israel helped arrange the GHF system as an alternative choice to the U.N.-run help supply system that has sustained Gaza for many years, accusing Hamas of siphoning off help. The U.N. denies any mass diversion by Hamas. It accuses GHF of forcing Palestinians to danger their lives to get meals and say it advances Israel’s plans for additional mass displacement.
Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Related Press writers Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem and Natalie Melzer contributed from Nahariya.
Observe AP’s conflict protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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