The Israeli military has put parts of Gaza City and Khan Younis under new enforced displacement orders amid fears that the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is preparing to order the full occupation of the Palestinian territory later this week.
Israel’s security cabinet is expected to meet on Thursday evening and sign off on plans for an expanded operation despite reported serious misgivings from senior military officers.
The order for Gaza—euphemistically described by the Israel Defense Forces as an “evacuation”—is the latest in dozens of such announcements that have displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population, many on multiple occasions. Gaza’s health ministry said that at least 135 Palestinians, including 87 people seeking food, had been killed and 771 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours.
Critics of the plan say any push for full occupation—a demand being made by Israel’s far right—would put the lives of Israeli hostages in Gaza at risk, could take between a year and two years to fully achieve, and would come at the expense of the country’s increasing diplomatic isolation, with the international community increasingly horrified by Israel’s actions.
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