Pack your suitcases’: Israel’s far right unveils its blueprint for emptying Gaza
Ben-Gvir’s party is demanding a new ministry dedicated to “voluntary migration.” Those living amid the rubble say they will not leave.
8 Sep, 2026 , By Elizabeth Blade, RT Middle East correspondent, https://www.rt.com/news/645274-pack-your-suitcases-israels-gaza/
Israel’s far-right national security minister has put a seven-year timetable on emptying Gaza of most of its people, and dressed it up as choice. Gazans RT spoke to call it what international law already names it: forced displacement.
Last week, Jewish Power chairman and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir unveiled ‘Disengagement 710’, a policy blueprint for what he calls the voluntary migration of Gaza residents to countries willing to take them. Destinations floated by his party include Türkiye, unspecified Arab states, Ethiopia, and Congo.
The numbers are not modest. The plan foresees the departure of about 250,000 people in the first year, 1.11 million within three years, and some 1.86 million within seven, encompassing the bulk of the Strip’s population.
To run it, Jewish Power wants the next government to create a dedicated ministry for “voluntary migration,” complete with a minister, a director-general, its own budget, an international negotiating team, and an implementation apparatus.
Ben-Gvir vows to make the ministry a coalition demand after Israel’s October 27 election. “Instead of illusions of peace now, we need actions of emigration now,” he said. “Instead of them digging tunnels, it’s time to pack suitcases.”
This idea is not new for the Jewish state.
A Zionist through-line
In 1937, David Ben-Gurion, then a leading Zionist figure, promoted the transfer of Palestinians and argued they should be moved to Transjordan. In the 1980s, the same ‘voluntary’ formula was championed by far-right politicians Rehavam Ze’evi – nicknamed ‘Gandhi’– and Meir Kahane. Their schemes never left the drawing board.
Ben-Gvir now presents his version as newly realistic, citing earlier public backing from US President Donald Trump. Trump floated mass relocation from Gaza in early 2025, then walked the idea back under Arab and international pressure.
His later 20-point framework stated that no one would be forced to leave and that residents should be encouraged to stay. Ben-Gvir treats the first Trump remark as political cover and the second as an inconvenience.
Gazans RT interviewed rejected the initiative as illegal under international law and a crime against humanity.
”People in Gaza and across Palestine know Ben-Gvir’s plans go far beyond our existence in the Strip,” said Abdallah Ali, a resident of central Gaza.
Ali said that is why Gazans, himself included, intend to stay put.
Rami Al Meghari, from Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza, reached the same conclusion for a different reason: memory of exile.
“Many Palestinians found life in other countries, especially Arab states, awkward and humiliating,” he said. “They will not leave Gaza for a destination that cannot guarantee dignity, whether an Arab capital or some African country Israel has long suggested, like Somalia.”
Polls, rubble, and the meaning of ‘voluntary’
A PCPSR poll last year found 56% of Gazans interviewed unwilling to emigrate. A substantial minority, some 43%, said they would.
Ali and Al Meghari were not surprised. Despair is real, and the findings of various UN reports show it clearly.
As of June 16, 2026, satellite analysis by the UN Satellite Centre found 201,290 structures damaged, an estimated 82% of all buildings in Gaza. Of those, 134,422 were assessed as destroyed, 13,848 severely damaged, 28,096 moderately damaged and 24,924 possibly damaged.
Most of Gaza’s 2.1 million people remain displaced. The Shelter Cluster, surveying in June 2026, said 1.98 million people, 94% of the population, need shelter and household items.
Food and water continue to be an issue. Between mid-April and June 30, 2026, more than 1.2 million people (59%) were still in dire need of assistance.
Assessments in 2026 found 43% of households below the 15-liter humanitarian minimum per person per day, and 62% below the 6-liter drinking-water floor.
But Ali and Al Meghari insist the pull of the land is much stronger.
“Whatever the suffering, even with around 97 percent of cropland destroyed and most of the built environment gone, people are putting up tents and staying in displacement camps. They are not packing to leave,” Ali said.
Al Meghari still hopes the political weather will change. “Life can move forward in Gaza if there is serious international and Arab pressure to implement the second phase of the ceasefire. The United States has a particular responsibility to make that happen. Russia also needs to play a pivotal role to bring the suffering of the Palestinians to an end.”
Reconstruction as leverage
There is little movement on reconstruction. Israel is blocking construction materials, demanding that Hamas disarm and demilitarize first. The Board of Peace has pushed for weapons to be collected and placed under international supervision, a formula Israel rejects.
Ali sees the stalled effort as a policy, not an accident. “This is taking a very long time. I do not think Israel will accept Gaza’s reconstruction anytime soon. It will keep complicating reality until leaving becomes the only realistic option.”
Ahmed Al-Masri, a lawyer in Gaza, argues Israel has played this hand before and lost. “We lived this in 2014 [Operation Protective Edge – ed.]. Israel said Gaza should not be rebuilt. Then, under international pressure and with UN supervision, it was forced to comply.”
And he also pins some hope on Israel’s October 27 parliamentary vote. “If the far-right government is removed, there might be a beginning, a glimmer on the horizon, and a better political reality for people here, if Palestinians also insist on rebuilding political, social and economic life.”
That is the wager Gaza is making: that endurance outlasts a plan that needs other countries to open their doors, Washington to revive an idea it already shelved, and two million people to accept that ‘voluntary’ means leaving home because the alternative has been made unlivable.
Ben-Gvir is betting the opposite – that the wreckage, a ministry, and a slogan about suitcases can finish what earlier transfer schemes could not. Gazans say they have heard that speech before.
Gazans Feel Despair as Israeli Officials Cement Plans for Permanent Occupation
September 12, 2026, By Shahad Ali, https://scheerpost.com/2026/09/12/gazans-feel-despair-as-israeli-officials-cement-plans-for-permanent-occupation/
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has described a plan to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to other countries.
Nearly a year after Donald Trump announced the creation of the “Board of Peace,” which was ostensibly charged with ending Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza and overseeing reconstruction, one of the figures most centrally involved in the body has warned that a complete collapse of the so-called ceasefire in Gaza could lead to a “point of no return.”
Nickolay Mladenov, the Bulgarian diplomat who serves as Gaza’s High Representative on the Board of Peace, made the comments during a UN Security Council session on Wednesday, August 26. Casualty numbers in Gaza have dropped, he noted, but have not ceased, offering a pointed critique of Israel’s continued bombardment despite the supposed cessation of hostilities.
“If this ceasefire collapses and the strip spirals into another full escalation, there will be no road map to return to, there will be no administration to deploy, and there will be nothing left on the ground to rebuild,” he said.
In his remarks, Mladenov also noted that Hamas and armed factions in the Gaza Strip had agreed to disarm and transfer civilian and security responsibilities to a transitional authority recognized by the United Nations. This was the first time Hamas and the armed factions within Gaza had agreed to such a step, Mladenov announced, which is part of a plan for a new phase of the ceasefire in Gaza. The road map also includes the dismantling of all weapons in the Strip and its demilitarization, subject to verification and monitoring; the complete transfer of civilian and security governance in Gaza; the reconstruction of destroyed areas so people can return to normal life; and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza tied to progress in disarmament.
The full implementation of this 15-point comprehensive plan, which Mladenov had outlined to the council earlier this year, would provide an opportunity to “dramatically improve the lives of Palestinians in Gaza in a sustainable way, provide durable security for Israelis, and move from a conflict that has destabilized the region toward an environment that provides peace, prosperity and economic opportunities for the entire Middle East.”
These comments spread rapidly across Gaza. In displacement camps, Gazans gathered to discuss the details of the road map and the extent to which it might improve the horrific conditions they endure in overcrowded and flimsy tents, deprived of even the basic necessities of life. More than 2 million Palestinians concentrated in only around 30 percent of the Gaza Strip have been left so desperate that we scan news headlines for any indication of a possible end to our suffering. For many, the renewed interest in the Board of Peace plan became a lifeline they could cling to — hoping for a chance to live in peace, rebuild their destroyed lives, and return to areas now controlled by Israel beyond the so-called “Yellow Line.”
However, Mladenov’s announcement has been met with statements from Israeli officials that contradict the Board of Peace’s vision for Gaza’s future and reflect their unwillingness to withdraw from areas under Israeli control.
Before Mladenov’s address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already said he would reject the plan, despite the road map’s connection to U.S. President Donald Trump. During a September 2 visit to Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu also said he had no plans to withdraw from territory under Israeli control. “We are not withdrawing. We are staying along this line, and we control more than 60 percent of the Strip, and there is more still to come,” he said, stressing that military operations against those he described as threatening Israel’s security would continue.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also confirmed in a statement on September 1 that Israeli troops would remain inside the Gaza Strip even after Hamas is disarmed and Gaza is demilitarized. Moreover, at a September 2 conference hosted by the Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth, Katz described a plan to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to other countries — which some Israeli officials falsely describe as voluntary migration rather than ethnic cleansing.
“There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration. Hamas isn’t allowing them to leave, and there are no countries in the world taking them in,” he said. He also added that Israel was prepared to carry out the plan “by sea, by air, and by any means,” and suggested that Trump had only “frozen” the plan for ethnic cleansing due to the lack of countries willing to receive Palestinians from Gaza.
These statements have crushed the little glimmer of hope Gazans had clung to and deepened our collective fear that we will be forced to continue living amid rubble, tents, and an ever-expanding Israeli military occupation for years, with no end in sight — all while also facing the even greater threat of being displaced entirely from the Gaza Strip.
Diana Al Ajoz, 41, was displaced from her neighborhood in Al-Zaytoun, which is now under Israeli military control, and is being forced to live in a tent near Gaza City beach. She told me she felt optimistic when she first heard about the Board of Peace’s plan for Gaza, hoping that she would be able to return to a normal life in her beloved neighborhood where she was born and raised. However, when she heard about Israel’s intention not to withdraw from the so-called “Yellow Line,” which encompasses Al-Zaytoun, she felt even more desperate.
“The statements I heard about Hamas disarmament, Israeli withdrawal, reconstruction, and the return of life to Gaza gave me hope that we might finally live in lasting peace, away from war and suffering. But then, when I hear statements from Israeli officials saying the opposite — that they intend to keep their forces in Gaza, seize more land, and continue our displacement — it deeply devastated me.”
“After hearing the Israeli statements, I doubt that our living conditions will improve quickly. My biggest fear is that we will continue living in tents for the coming years while dreaming of living in a home that protects us from the cold of winter and the heat of summer,” Al Ajoz added.
“At the same time, I fear that we might continue to suffer the same hardships we face every day just to access the basic necessities of life, whether it is standing in a long line to use the bathroom or to get our share of food or water. I also fear continuing to live away from my beautiful neighborhood, Al-Zaytoun, and keep thinking about the day when I might be able to return to it.”
Alaa Zuatair, 39, lives in a tent in Khan Younis after Israeli forces destroyed her home in Jabalia and took control of her entire neighborhood within the so-called “Yellow Line.” She also told me that she had lost all hope in the plan proposed by the Board of Peace.
“Each time negotiations and talks about improving living conditions in Gaza and bringing an end to our suffering begin, Israel meets them with delays and rejections,” she said.
“I could talk to you endlessly about the harsh reality we are living through here. We have written, appealed, and pleaded with the world to put an end to our suffering, but nothing changes. We are living a life deprived of any stability or even a sense of safety. We have literally reached a point where we think about death every minute and go to sleep without knowing what might happen tomorrow.”
Zuatair also added that her current location offers her no real safety. The area in which she and her family have been displaced to is near the Yellow Line, and they hear gunfire from Israeli forces almost every day and remain at risk of further displacement at any moment.
“We always hear a new statement and a new plan about ending our suffering, while ultimately, we continue to live through the same harsh reality,” she said. “So, honestly, when you talk to me about a ‘Board of Peace,’ I ask: What peace are you talking about? How can there be peace while, at the same time, Israeli officials are talking about displacing Palestinians and seizing more land? How are we supposed to make sense of this equation?”
“I do not have any answers about what our future will look like,” Zuatair concluded. “The only thing we ask for is to live in peace. We want to wake up knowing that the day ahead will pass without fear, without bombardment, and without new displacement.”
Three Major Revelations About The Gaza Holocaust In The Israeli Press
Caitlin Johnstone, Sep 10, 2026, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/three-major-revelations-about-the?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=214991965&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
The Israeli press has published three significant revelations about the Gaza holocaust, reporting (1) that Benjamin Netanyahu concealed advanced knowledge of the Hamas attack on October 7, (2) that Israel rejected a Hamas offer to release all civilian hostages immediately after October 7, and (3) that according to an IDF drone operator, the Israeli military was intentionally firing on civilians throughout Gaza during its operations in the Palestinian territory.
The first two come from a Haaretz article titled “Revealed: Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs”, which was released ahead of an upcoming Haaretz book about the hostage standoff in Gaza.
Haaretz describes a call between Netanyahu and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, citing three foreign senior sources:
“A week and a half before October 7, 2023 the Emirati ruler called Netanyahu from the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi and spoke with him for 45 minutes. In that conversation, bin Zayed warned that Hamas’ leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, was planning a major operation against Israel. Bin Zayed expressed concern that the event in question would not only lead to bloodshed but also destabilize the entire region and undermine the Abraham Accords.”
Haaretz reports that rather than pass these warnings on to Israeli national security officials, Netanyahu chose to sit on information which an unnamed Shin Bet official said could have “changed our entire assessment picture.”
Haaretz also notes that Israel had received similar warnings about a coming Hamas attack from Egyptian intelligence, which had been reported earlier. These are just two items in the mountains upon mountains upon mountains of evidence indicating that powerful people in Israel knowingly allowed Hamas to inflict as much damage as possible on October 7 2023 in order to advance the murderous ethnic cleansing objectives we’ve seen rolled out in the years since.
Nothing will turn you into a conspiracy theorist faster than learning basic facts about what happened on October 7. But even without knowing those facts it already strains credulity to believe Israel had no advance knowledge of a complex attack which would require extensive open-air training in one of the most heavily surveilled strips of land on our planet. Especially when you look at all the pre-existing military agendas Israel was able to push forward in the aftermath.
Later in that same article, Haaretz quotes a Palestinian politician named Samir Mashharawi describing what Hamas leadership told him during his mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas after October 7:
“He told me that in the first stage, they had no problem releasing all civilians without anything in return,” Mashharawi recounts. “I swear, those were his exact words: all civilians, without anything in return. They had only one condition: They wanted us to bring in an agreed-upon mediator as quickly as possible, so that negotiations could immediately begin over everything else.”
Mashharawi said Israel rejected the offer. A senior Israeli defense official corroborated this, telling Haaretz:
“The release of the hostages did not even enter the list of war objectives formulated by the government on the night of October 7. Could the proposal have been properly discussed and a decision reached? In substantive terms, the answer is yes. But the prevailing mood was like after Pearl Harbor: We had just suffered a brutal blow, we were in the midst of war, who had the bandwidth to talk about stopping the fighting and starting negotiations now, even if it was to save the lives of dozens of people, whose final number was still unknown?”
So all that hasbara about the hostages and the Bibas kids and how Hamas needed to be destroyed because they were refusing to release innocent civilian captives was complete bunk from the very beginning. Hamas offered to release them with no conditions but the opening of communication lines. Israel refused, because what they wanted was to steal more Palestinian land. It was never about the hostages, and anyone who said it was is a liar.
Lastly, a separate report in Hebrew from Haaretz quotes an Israeli air force reserve major describing how IDF policies and culture ensured the deaths of large numbers of civilians. Here are a few quotes, translated by Israeli-American political analyst Shaiel Ben-Ephraim:
1) He was involved in the March 23, 2025 paramedic killings in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah and said, “You could clearly tell these were rescue vehicles even as fire was opened on them from the ground. For no apparent reason, the force on the ground charged the convoy. They shot the first vehicle, the medical personnel got out, hid behind the ambulances and begged for their lives, and the soldiers shot them one after another.”
“On how the yellow line was used as an excuse to kill innocent people: “The Palestinians didn’t know it existed, and the Air Force wasn’t always updated either. From the perspective of a farmer walking onto his own land — he has no idea he’s stepping into an area the IDF suddenly decided is a fire zone. And then all kinds of retroactive justifications started coming up. ‘He came for an arms deal.’ ‘He touched the ground, maybe he’s planting an explosive.’ To me it looked like they were trying to incriminate people with no intelligence and no proof.”
On how all morals were lost in Gaza: “”The feeling was that something tore, everyone had already become cynical about death, you can’t understand it from the outside. It’s not just fatigue, it’s an erosion of morality, of responsibility, of the sense that someone is still managing the event. Very quickly this whole business of ‘collateral damage’ disappeared from the considerations. They fire on anyone they see. The atmosphere started to be like the stands at a soccer match. The way you shout at a player, ‘Yalla, score,’ that’s how they shout at a soldier, ‘Kill him, strike him.’”
Like the other revelations, this report further discredits the lies the public was sold about Israel’s reasons for its atrocities in Gaza. All those lies about how Israel is taking extraordinary measures to protect civilian life in Gaza and only kills civilians because Hamas “hides behind human shields” has been thoroughly discredited by copious amounts of evidence that Israel was going out of its way to kill noncombatants throughout the course of the onslaught.
The world was lied to about the Gaza holocaust, just like it was lied to about every other act of mass military slaughter that the US involves itself in. Please carry these lessons into the future.
Israel’s Quadcopter Drones Have Become a Weapon of Everyday Killing in Gaza
September 9, 2026, By Malak Hijazi & Ohood Nassar, https://scheerpost.com/2026/09/09/israels-quadcopter-drones-have-become-a-weapon-of-everyday-killing-in-gaza/
No space, either on land or in water, sits outside the drones’ reach. The siege tightens by the day.
Sadeq Abdelhafiz, 26, noticed an unusual quiet around him as he stood in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza near the cemetery on Salah al-Din Street. A small quadcopter drone (about the size of a floor tile) had fired a volley of bullets just minutes earlier, and it was still there, hovering over the minaret of the nearby Ibn Marwan Mosque, adjacent to the cemetery.
Abdelhafiz turned his head to see his friend Mustafa Mushtaha leaning against a tree. At first, he thought Mushtaha was tired from walking, or taking shelter out of fear. Then he realized his friend had been shot.
Abdelhafiz and Mushtaha had traveled to the cemetery on June 10, 2025, along with members of Mushtaha’s family and friends, to bury Mushtaha’s sisters, who had been killed in an Israeli strike days earlier. However, when they reached the cemetery, they found the Israeli quadcopter hovering above them.
They never expected it would open fire.
“We were only doing the burial, and it was obvious,” Abdelhafiz told Truthout. After they placed both of his sisters in a single grave due to the lack of space, the quadcopter started firing randomly at them. “We buried them quickly, in a rush, without any order,” Abdelhafiz said.
Abdelhafiz suggested leaving the cemetery separately, since the graves left only a narrow gap, barely enough for one person to pass. “Mustafa was behind me, five steps away. I could hear his footsteps, until I couldn’t,” Abdelhafiz said. Then he heard him say, “I feel a sharp stab in my back.” Abdelhafiz, with Mushtaha’s brother and uncle, carried him toward the exit as the quadcopter fired again. When he took off Mushtaha’s shirt, he found a bullet wound in his back.
By chance, a Palestinian Ministry of Health service vehicle was passing them. It was transporting employees but lacked first-aid supplies. They placed Mushtaha inside, and Abdelhafiz put his hand on his neck to check if he was breathing. Abdelhafiz told me, “I felt he had passed away while we were in the car.” When they arrived at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, they brought Mushtaha into an emergency tent already overwhelmed with more than 100 wounded people. The doctor tried to give him first aid, but it was in vain: Mushtaha had already died.
The small drone that took Mushtaha’s life is part of an Israeli strategy to pull warfare down into the intimacy of everyday space.
A Killing Machine That Israeli Officials Say Is “Like a Video Game”
Quadcopters are small, multi-rotor tactical drones. According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel deploys two models of armed quadcopters: the Matrice 600, which was originally designed for civilian use before being converted into a tool for surveillance and lethal strikes, and the Lanius, a purpose-built AI-powered military drone. Zeteo further reported that Israel appears to be the first military in the world to deploy an armed quadcopter in actual combat.
While the term “quadcopter” is now deeply ingrained in daily life in Gaza, associated with sudden bursts of gunfire through alleyways and windows, Israel’s usage of these armed drones began before October 7, 2023.
The technology first became familiar to Palestinians in Gaza during the 2018 Great March of Return, when Israeli forces, including reservists activated as drone pilots, used the DJI Matrice 600 model to drop tear gas canisters on unarmed demonstrators, causing severe injuries.
By 2019, some quadcopter models were adapted for targeted assassinations, as in the killing of Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata. Three years later, in November 2022, the Israeli defense company Elbit Systems publicly unveiled Lanius, a palm-sized drone built for autonomous navigation and close-quarters strikes.
However, when Israel launched its assault on Gaza following the October 7, 2023, attack, these armed quadcopters moved from limited, targeted use, to broad deployment across the Strip.
Their use has intensified for multiple purposes: surveillance, issuing displacement directives, injuring, and killing. The drones have reportedly employed the tactic of terrorizing civilians with recorded sounds of crying infants, screaming women, and barking dogs to lure them into the open before opening fire.
Israeli security officials, speaking on Channel 14, confirmed the use of what they called “a new generation of lethal weapons.” They added that a quadcopter “does not hesitate, does not stop, and almost never makes mistakes,” comparing its operation to “watching a video game.”
Quadcopters Target Children
Children have paid a particular price as quadcopters have become more widespread. On August 12, 2026, despite the declared ceasefire, a quadcopter attack in Khan Younis wounded a father and critically wounded his 13-year-old son as they walked home after buying falafel. The father described a blast that scattered everyone nearby. He found his son on the ground, bleeding from shrapnel wounds to the head and leg.
A month earlier, on July 3, 2026, a quadcopter dropped a bomb on two children from the Tawtah family as they filled water containers behind Al-Omari Mosque, east of Gaza City. One child was killed and the other wounded.
The pattern repeats in hospital wards across Gaza. A report by the Costs of War project at Brown University documented 18 cases in a single month, from August to September 2024, of children admitted with single, small-caliber gunshot wounds to the head, neck, chest, or abdomen. In 90 percent of cases, families reported the children had been shot directly by quadcopter drones.
Sometimes the evidence comes from the perpetrators themselves. In May 2026, an Israeli soldier from the Kfir Brigade posted a video on his private Instagram account: a quadcopter firing upon two barefoot Palestinian children in Gaza. The children appear to survive a strike, but the video does not reveal their ultimate fate. A UN commission of inquiry later found that the Kfir brigade killed two brothers, aged 9 and 10, in a drone strike as they gathered firewood, more than 300 meters from any soldiers.
Enforcing the Siege
Today, these drones also serve as the primary enforcement mechanism of the so-called Yellow Line, a boundary originally marked by yellow blocks to delineate zones for expected Israeli withdrawal under the October 2025 ceasefire terms. But instead of receding, the line has expanded.
According to OCHA, the “Yellow Line” initially restricted Palestinians’ access to about 53 percent of Gaza after the October 2025 so-called ceasefire. Israel later introduced a further “Orange Line,” extending tighter restrictions to 64.9 percent of the Strip by June 2026, crowding more than 2 million people into a shrinking space. Quadcopters enforce these invisible boundaries, hovering over anyone who moves near them and blocking displaced people from returning home.
Israeli officials have given no indication this will change. On August 9, 2026, Netanyahu rejected the Board of Peace’s 15-point plan, declaring Israeli forces would not withdraw until Hamas is disarmed. With no mechanism to inform residents when the line advances, many Palestinians wake to find their area has fallen under fire overnight.
The threat is not confined to land. On August 14, 2026, Israeli naval boats and quadcopter drones opened fire on a fishing boat west of Gaza City, wounding three fishermen. No space, neither on land nor in water, sits outside the drones’ reach, drawing the siege tighter by the day.
Silencing the Witnesses
Journalists trying to document these killings have themselves become targets. Iman Al-Ajla, a 24-year-old Gaza-based journalist who has survived multiple drone attacks, told Truthout how these weapons are turned directly against media workers on the ground.
In October 2025, after refusing to displace south and remaining in Gaza City, Al-Ajla went alongside six fellow journalists to Al-Shifa Hospital to document an Israeli strike. As they arrived, a quadcopter opened fire directly at the group. “They shot at us to prevent us from documenting the truth,” she recalled.
Months later, in early July 2026, Al-Ajla faced the drones again while covering the advance of the Yellow Line in eastern Shujaiya alongside two photojournalists.
“We fled the area immediately and saw the gunfire strike the tents, injuring dozens inside,” Al-Ajla told Truthout. “It was a horrific situation, made worse by the fact that it happened during a declared ceasefire. We later saw serious injuries coming to the hospital after that same shooting.”
Iman’s experience is only one fragment of a far wider toll. The number of people killed in Gaza continues to rise despite the declared ceasefire, now exceeding 73,000 — roughly 3.4 percent of the Strip’s pre-war population of 2.1 million — a figure that does not include the more than 174,000 wounded. The quadcopter has been a central tool in this relentless campaign. It does not hesitate. Neither, it seems, does the impunity that follows it.
Dreams about Gaza: Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing Proposals
5 September 2026 Dr Binoy Kampmark, https://theaimn.net/dreams-about-gaza-israels-ethnic-cleansing-proposals/
I’m Let’s be done with the pretence of decency and soggy references to just resolution in the face of extreme circumstances. Be done with the hilarious stage acts of referring to legal doctrines that either do not exist or cannot exist in the bloodied context they are being forced to refer to. The State of Israel is intent, with every arm, administrative faculty and office bearer of consequence, to achieve ethnic effacing and utopic bliss with the removal of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, with the former going first.
Speaking on September 2 at a conference organised by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz returned to a theme so rapidly hardening it is likely to ossify at any given moment: that a Gaza filled with Palestinians is not a tenable proposition from the perspective of his country’s interests. Whatever dubious tag is attached – immigration, migration, or depopulation – the current populace could simply not remain. “In the end, there is no real solution for Gaza without this migration.” The emigration of Palestinians would take place “by any means” (“by sea, by air, by every way possible”), the process having only been put on ice by US President Donald Trump.
It had been one of those moments of mental arrest, but Trump engendered a sharp frisson in the ranks of the Netanyahu government with his February 2025 proposal to relocate the residents of Gaza. Once done, developers and builders could come in and turn the strip into a tourist destination replete with the vulgar fripperies typical of such resorts. By October 2025, Trump’s peace plan envisaged something else; the relocation-development scheme seemed to have not so much stalled as died in its sleep, with the promise that the residents could stay and engage in the process of rebuilding the devastated territory. Point 12 of the plan is explicit on this: “No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.” Not so, according to Katz. “The [depopulation] plan hasn’t been cancelled; it is being discussed all the time, even now, and I think there is no other solution for everyone’s good.”
When asked when this odious object might be facilitated, Katz airily suggested that the conduct of Hamas could be the catalyst, notably “when it becomes clear that [it] is not fulfilling its commitment[s]” under US peace plans. “Then we will get a green light to advance militarily, territorially, and in other areas as well.”
During a visit to an IDF post close to the Yellow Line demarcating Israel’s area of control from the rest of the Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared his firm intentions. “We are not withdrawing,” he stated in a video message distributed by his office. “We are staying on this line. We control 60% of the Strip. And there is still more to come, because we are eliminating the terrorists who threaten us – we do this day in and day out.”
Gallingly, Katz had the temerity to suggest that the Gazans wished to leave – some 80% – making passing reference to vague, unsubstantiated surveys that had been conducted by Israeli authorities. (It’s always curious how the rabidly patriotic always assume that no other group can cling, so desperately and tenaciously, to a strip of land, whatever the cost.) If only other countries were willing to accept those apparently willing residents of Gaza, the problems would vanish. “Hamas isn’t allowing them [to leave], and there are no countries in the world taking them in. President Trump put the issue on the agenda. Now every country needs to take people in – and that’s the big issue.”
This deplorable language, condemned by US Democratic Senator for Maryland Chris Van Hollen, received a boost of patriotic umami from Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The minister tends to make a habit of going to prisons to gloat about their ruinous conditions, all the time threatening Palestinian inmates with impending death, ensuring the deprivation of basic human rights (they, the reasoning goes, do not deserve them) while encouraging the inexorable de facto annexation of the West Bank. On September 3, he also advanced his oxymoronic version of a “voluntary emigration” plan dubbed “Disengagement 710”, a nod to Israel’s exit from Gaza in 2005 and the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
The plan entails the removal of 250,000 Gazans in the first year, 1.11 million within three years and 1.86 million within seven. A sinister “Emigration Ministry” will oversee the process. “Instead of [Gazans] digging tunnels, it’s time to pack suitcases,” reasoned Ben-Gvir. To sweeten the abuse, emigrants would receive an “absorption package” comprising “assistance with travel, initial housing, vocational training, employment and support for up to 24 months.” Payments would also be made to recipient States.
In his remarks, Ben-Gvir also had room to draw inspiration from Trump. Ignoring the Gaza Peace Plan, the minister preferred to focus on the President’s initial proposal to “encourage emigration [as] a solution to the Gaza issue.” From being “treated as a delusional extremist,” he mused about his own standing, plans of removing Palestinians had “become legitimate. Suddenly, everyone became Ben-Gvir.”
The second part of the Palestinian eradication program involves the full assertion of sovereign control over the West Bank, though the process there is necessarily staggered, a form of slow-motion extermination of a culture and people that is taking place before an international law system petrified and mostly silent. So far, things are coming along nicely – from the settlers’ perspective. They are the spear carrying proxies for an ethnic cleansing regime. The Israeli authorities have their backs and, when they do intervene to curb any zeal, a mild slap on the wrist is the best to expect. The consistently promoted narrative is that the more violent perpetrators are errant buffoons with a death wish yet sporting a good heart, buffoons in good standing with the broader annexation drive that has been approved by the Knesset in a non-binding motion.
A word, to finish off, on the very euphemistic term “ethnic cleansing.” To say cleansing is a ghastly concession to the supposed wickedness of impurity. Something needs rinsing, the stains need removal. This application of ideological detergent assumes that there is something deficient or suspect in a race, an ethnicity or a religious group, a people, in short. It follows that what is happening to the Palestinians is ethnic in nature and not so much cleansing as eradicative.
The Freedom Flotilla Sails Again To Break The Gaza Blockade
THE FREEDOM FLOTILLA SAILS AGAIN
Vessels have begun international port-to-port voyage to Gaza
Coalition statements, By zohar. September 4, 2026, https://freedomflotilla.org/2026/09/02/ffc-sails-again/
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) today announced that a new international mission to challenge Israel’s illegal and deadly blockade of Gaza is underway.
The violence and torture that Israel inflicted on hundreds of flotilla volunteers this past spring, including severe beatings, repeated tasering, and sexual assault, has not deterred the FFC, just as Israel’s murder of 10 flotilla activists aboard the Mavi Marmara, in 2010 did not stop the movement. If anything, action is needed now more than ever. While much of the world has moved on from Gaza, believing a supposed “ceasefire” has ended the genocide, Israel continues to kill Palestinians in Gaza at will; use its blockade to restrict and manipulate the entry of the food, medicine, and fuel that a besieged population depends on to survive; and deny Palestinians their fundamental right to freedom.
The new mission involves a port-to-port voyage throughout Europe, bringing together human rights advocates, union activists, elected representatives, journalists, medical professionals, and other supporters of Palestinian freedom. In June and July 2026, FFC vessel, Handala II, sailed around Scandinavia, making stops at ports in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Earlier this month, the vessel, Kate, launched from Bristol, UK and has made port calls in Ireland, Germany, and France. Upcoming stops include ports in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, before the flotilla continues on to Gaza. At every stop, the flotilla will stand with local communities to press their own governments to end their complicity in genocide by blocking weapons and energy shipments that arm Israel’s aggression, ending diplomatic and military cooperation, and imposing real sanctions. The journey will build public support and international pressure ahead of the flotilla’s planned attempt to reach Gaza in October 2026.
“The Freedom Flotilla sails again because our governments continue to fail to uphold their obligations,” said Zohar Chamberlain Regev, FFC Steering Committee member. “At every port, we will carry the demand that Palestinians be free to live with dignity. In October, we intend to carry that demand and the solidarity of people around the world to Gaza’s shores.”
Throughout the port-to-port journey, FFC and its local partners will organize public welcomes, community gatherings, media events, and opportunities for supporters to visit the vessels. Details of port calls and public events will be released as arrangements are confirmed.
Since 2010, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has brought together civil-society organizations and grassroots campaigns from around the world to challenge the blockade by sea. Its work continues the precedent established by the Free Gaza Movement, whose vessels began sailing to Gaza in 2008.
“The Freedom Flotilla sails again because our governments continue to fail to uphold their obligations,” said Zohar Chamberlain Regev, FFC Steering Committee member. “At every port, we will carry the demand that Palestinians be free to live with dignity. In October, we intend to carry that demand and the solidarity of people around the world to Gaza’s shores.”
Throughout the port-to-port journey, FFC and its local partners will organize public welcomes, community gatherings, media events, and opportunities for supporters to visit the vessels. Details of port calls and public events will be released as arrangements are confirmed.
Since 2010, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has brought together civil-society organizations and grassroots campaigns from around the world to challenge the blockade by sea. Its work continues the precedent established by the Free Gaza Movement, whose vessels began sailing to Gaza in 2008.
Miscarriages and stillbirths in Gaza surge as Israel’s siege, malnutrition, toxic exposure and displacement ravage mothers
Eva Karene Bartlett, Aug 22, 2026
August 20, 2026, RT.com, Shocking news of a sudden over-threefold year-on-year increase of the number of miscarriages and stillbirths should be front page on global media. But because it is one of the latest consequences of the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, it will probably go ignored by most Western corporate media.
In fact, since a ‘ceasefire’ supposedly came into effect in October 2025, media coverage of Gaza has decreased dramatically. But – as with ceasefires prior – Israel has continued to kill Palestinians in Gaza on a near-daily basis, by bombing, machinegun fire, quadcopter fire, drone strikes, and by (continuing its near twenty-year siege on Gaza) not allowing in adequate amounts of humanitarian aid, medical supplies, and other things needed to just sustain life at the very basic level.
As of August 19, the Gaza Health Ministry reports 1,273 Palestinians have been killed, 4,223 wounded since October 11, 2025.
In mid-July, Ahmad Abu Foul, a Palestinian medic who I’ve known since I lived in Gaza, told me of the sudden increase in miscarriages, primarily among women living in displacement tents across the Gaza Strip.
He cited Dr. Mohammed Al-Bashiti, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, as warning of this disturbing increase and attributing it to various environmental and physical factors, notably, severe malnutrition and anemia, and “extreme physical fatigue due to repeated displacement from one place to another. Many are forced to carry heavy loads beyond their physical capacity, putting their pregnancies at greater risk.”
But it’s also caused by exposure to toxic chemicals – explosive residues, TNT-related materials, smoke – which put the baby at risk. Ahmad said that his sister just had a miscarriage at four months pregnant, and his niece had a stillbirth at eight months.
The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on July 30 published an article highlighting the dramatic rise in miscarriages. It cited a recent UN report stating from January to June 2026, 3,950 miscarriages had been reported. This is over triple the 1,197 miscarriages reported from July to December 2025. The miscarriage rate, it notes, is one-sixth of all pregnancies.
Haaretz cited Dr. Ahmed al-Farra, head of the pediatric department at Nasser Hospital as likewise saying the contributing factors to the increase in miscarriages are malnutrition and stress and also water shortages: “We have reached a point where each person has three liters of water a day, far below the minimum required. Ninety percent of the water is not fit for drinking. The water shortage leads to infections, weakening the immune system and worsening malnutrition.”
With the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and with Palestinians constantly forced to suddenly move their inadequate tents elsewhere, the lack of clean drinking water, and the near-complete dependence on financial and humanitarian aid from the outside world set the stage for a host of food-, water-, and hygiene-related illnesses, and now this dramatic increase in miscarriages.
Although it was stipulated in the ‘ceasefire’, Israel hasn’t been allowing sufficient food, water and medicines to enter Gaza.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported on August 9, 2026, that, “Israel enforces a comprehensive policy that disrupts the entire supply chain, starting from the entry of goods and aid through crossings until they reach the population.”
It notes the dearth of aid trucks entering Gaza in the first place, and that those which are permitted entry are not guaranteed to reach those in need, “due to the destruction or impairment of the transportation, storage, and distribution infrastructure.” It also notes that delays in shipping “cause frozen food, medicine, and other vital materials to spoil before reaching those in need.”
Euro-Med points out that Israel, “as the occupying power, has an obligation under Articles 55 and 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to guarantee that the population receives food and medical supplies when local resources are insufficient.”
From a logistical perspective, many of the illnesses plaguing Gaza could be eradicated were Israel to adhere to international law and allow in sufficient food, water and medical aid.
Israel is of course aware of this, as it has been since enforcing a full siege on Gaza in 2007. But the Israeli authorities know no international body or state – certainly not its biggest backer, the US – will force it to stop its genocide and allow in aid.
The invisible, creeping ‘Yellow Line’
Israel has been expanding its control of Gaza via a constantly-expanding, mostly-invisible, ‘Yellow Line’ – a demarcation line set out in the Israeli-US ‘peace plan’ of 2025. The Palestinians can mainly only guess at where it lies, aside from some yellow cement blocks which are periodically moved still further into Gaza, to claim more land………………………………………………………………………………………
Nonstop killing continues…………………………………………………………………………… https://evakarenebartlett.substack.com/p/miscarriages-and-stillbirths-in-gaza?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3046064&post_id=212152652&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Gaza’s Board of Pieces
Israel will never permit reconstruction in Gaza. It will never restore health facilities or water treatment plants. It will never turn over authority to an International Stabilization Force (ISF), one which only exists on paper. It will never permit the creation of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza or agree to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.
Trump promises a Gaza Riviera that will function as a “special economic zone” — a territory operating outside of state law governed entirely by private investors, such as the Peter Thiel-backed charter city in Honduras. But Trump’s Gaza Riviera is nothing more than a pathetic temporary camp along the ceasefire line near Rafah. It consists of “portable cabins” under Palestinian administration and a tiny international security force, according to The Guardian
August 11, 2026 Chris Hedges ScheerPost
There is no ceasefire in Gaza. There is no functioning “Board of Peace.” There is no roadmap to ending the genocide or mechanism to creation of a Palestinian state. Israel has refused to implement or abide by any of the conditions of Trump’s “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” since its inception. It won’t begin to honor them now.
There is only genocide. It changes shape and intensity. But it does not change its essence.
Trump’s plan is a mirage, a conjuring trick, a fleeting vanity project. In October 2025, Trump gathered world leaders in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to announce his peace deal, which he said “took 3,000 years” to achieve, before disappearing offstage. The peace plan, like the smoke-and-mirrors act that defines the Trump era, has been relegated to a dark memory hole, as our P.T. Barnum commander in chief trots out another bloody spectacle: war on Iran.
Trump announced a “historic” agreement on July 30 that entailed “the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza.” He called the 15-point plan, credited to the Board of Peace, which has no Palestinian representatives and installed Trump as its chair for life, “a monumental step toward lasting peace and security.”
But Hamas swiftly qualified the demand by saying that handing over its heavy weapons was only contingent on Israel ending “all forms of” its “aggression” and withdrawing its occupying forces from Gaza. Benjamin Netanyahu blithely dismissed Trump’s proposal. Israel, he said, will not withdraw its forces until Hamas is “genuinely” disarmed.
Read this to mean never.
The peace plan — which was endorsed by the United Nations in a stunning disregard for Palestinian sovereignty and international law — was never more than a publicity stunt. It exists to provide Israel with the diplomatic cover to bring the genocide to its intended conclusion — the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza — a euphemism for ethnic cleansing.
Since the “ceasefire” went into effect on Oct. 10, 2025, two months before the Trump “peace plan” was formalised, Israel has killed 1,258 Palestinians in Gaza.
Ceasefires with these body counts are not ceasefires.
Once Gaza is emptied, the West Bank will be next.
Of the myriads of peace plans over the decades, this one is the least serious.
Aside from a demand that Hamas release the hostages within 72-hours after the ceasefire began — which took place — it lacks specifics and imposed timetables. It is filled with caveats that allow Israel to abrogate the agreement.
That is the point.
“It is not designed to be a viable path to peace, which most Israeli leaders understand,” I wrote when the plan was announced. “Israel’s largest-circulation newspaper, Israel Hayom, established by the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson to serve as a mouthpiece for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and champion messianic Zionism, instructed its readers not to be concerned about the Trump plan because it is only ‘rhetoric’”
Israel, I noted, in one example from the proposal, will “not return to areas that have been withdrawn from, as long as Hamas fully implements the agreement.”
“Who decides if Hamas has “fully implemented” the agreement?” I asked. “Israel. Does anyone believe in Israel’s good faith? Can Israel be trusted as an objective arbitrator of the agreement? If Hamas — demonized as a terrorist group — objects, will anyone listen?”
“How is it possible that a peace proposal ignores the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 Advisory Opinion, which reiterated that Israel’s occupation is illegal and must end?” I continued. “How can it fail to mention the Palestinian’s right to self-determination?”
“Who gave the U.S. the authority to send to Gaza an “International Stabilization Force,” a polite term for foreign occupation?” I wrote. “Why is Israel, which has destroyed Gaza, not required to pay reparations?”
Ninety-two percent of Gaza’s residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed and around 81 percent of all structures are damaged, according to UN estimates. The Strip has been reduced to 61 million tons of rubble, including nine million tons of hazardous waste that includes asbestos, industrial waste, and heavy metals, in addition to unexploded ordinance and an estimated 10,000 decaying corpses. Israel has demolished some 1,500 buildings since the ceasefire went into effect.
How can anyone believe that Israel, intent on leveling Gaza, will reverse itself to allow Palestinians to rebuild what it spent so much time, money and blood to destroy?
Retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council, echoed this sentiment on Sunday on Israel’s 103FM radio station.
“Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt, it is better for us that it be destroyed for generations to come,” Eiland said.
“The greater the despair in Gaza and the greater the destruction, and the greater the monument to what they did on October 7, years to come, that is good,” he added.
Israel will never permit reconstruction in Gaza. It will never restore health facilities or water treatment plants. It will never turn over authority to an International Stabilization Force (ISF), one which only exists on paper. It will never permit the creation of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza or agree to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.
Trump promises a Gaza Riviera that will function as a “special economic zone” — a territory operating outside of state law governed entirely by private investors, such as the Peter Thiel-backed charter city in Honduras. But Trump’s Gaza Riviera is nothing more than a pathetic temporary camp along the ceasefire line near Rafah. It consists of “portable cabins” under Palestinian administration and a tiny international security force, according to The Guardian…………………………………………………………………………………
Palestinians, 90 percent of whom have been displaced, continue to live in tent cities amid rubble and open pools of raw sewage. They lack toilets or electricity. There is an 80 percent unemployment rate. Tens of thousands of children suffer acute malnutrition in Gaza. A child, on average, is killed every day.
Tacitus understood. They made a desert and call it peace.
Trump’s plan was not designed to end the conflict. It was not designed to provide an equitable settlement for the Palestinians. It was not designed to halt the ongoing mass slaughter. It was designed to allow Israel to complete its genocide and drive surviving Palestinians from their homeland — the culmination of the Zionist dream.
Trump, however obtuse, has at least figured this out. https://scheerpost.com/2026/08/11/gazas-board-of-pieces/
Gaza’s “Peace Plan” Is Written in Blood
the recorded toll since October 7, 2023, has reached 73,375 Palestinians killed and 174,220 wounded. Since October 11, the first full day of the nominal ceasefire, Israeli forces have reportedly killed at least 1,250 Palestinians and injured 4,110, while recovery crews have retrieved another 804 bodies from beneath the rubble.
August 4, 2026, Joshua Scheer, https://scheerpost.com/2026/08/04/gazas-peace-plan-is-written-in-blood/
President Donald Trump calls his Gaza agreement a “major milestone” toward peace. For Palestinians living beneath Israeli aircraft and beside an ever-advancing military boundary, that triumphal language bears little resemblance to reality. Israel killed 18 Palestinians on Sunday in one of the deadliest days since the supposed ceasefire began, while survivors described attacks striking the enclave from north to south. Gaza health authorities say at least 1,230 Palestinians—most of them civilians—have been killed since the Trump-backed agreement was reached in October.
Nor has the ceasefire produced the promised Israeli withdrawal. Israeli forces have instead expanded their control from 53 percent of Gaza to as much as 70 percent, pushing more families from their homes and confining nearly two million people to an increasingly narrow strip of devastated coastline. Israeli officials now insist that no withdrawal will begin until Hamas has completely disarmed and its tunnels have been destroyed, while omitting the continuing attacks and territorial seizures that Palestinian factions say violate the agreement.
Reuters reporters Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas document the chasm between the diplomatic spectacle and Gaza’s grim reality: civilians killed under the banner of peace, military occupation expanding beneath the language of withdrawal, and displaced families watching Israel’s “yellow line” move steadily closer to their tents. As one Palestinian woman told Reuters, “Our entire life is gone, our entire future is gone, our children’s future is gone.” In Gaza, the peace being celebrated in Washington looks increasingly like war conducted under a new name.Israel Escalates Gaza Attacks as Trump Celebrates a ‘Historic’ Ceasefire Deal
What a stark contrast—and a reminder that Israel is not on board with any meaningful ceasefire. Much like Washington’s other wars fought on Israel’s behalf, the Trump administration’s plan appears focused on disarming Israel’s opponents while imposing few visible restraints on the Israeli military.
On Monday, Nikolay Mladenov, Trump’s Gaza envoy to the so-called Board of Peace, held what the board described as a “constructive and detailed” meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The board declared that its unquestioned objective was the “complete decommissioning of weapons” in Gaza and a transition to civilian government.
But Palestinians experienced a very different reality. “It was as if the war has resumed,” Gaza resident Aya Mohammad Zaki told Reuters, describing attacks occurring nearly every hour across northern, central and southern Gaza. Among those killed Sunday were a couple and their child in an Israeli strike on a Gaza City apartment. While Trump’s board discusses disarming Gaza, Israeli bombs continue falling on Palestinian families.
According to Drop Site News, Israeli attacks have killed at least 34 Palestinians and wounded 134 across Gaza since President Donald Trump announced what he called a “historic agreement” and Hamas conditionally accepted the ceasefire plan’s second phase. Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that 19 Palestinians were killed and 35 injured during the latest 24-hour period.
The ministry says the recorded toll since October 7, 2023, has reached 73,375 Palestinians killed and 174,220 wounded. Since October 11, the first full day of the nominal ceasefire, Israeli forces have reportedly killed at least 1,250 Palestinians and injured 4,110, while recovery crews have retrieved another 804 bodies from beneath the rubble.
A ceasefire is supposed to mean safety. For displaced Palestinians sheltering beside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, it brought another night of terror, destruction and forced flight.
Footage reported by Drop Site contributor Abdel Qader Sabbah documents the aftermath of an Israeli strike that destroyed a central medical warehouse containing essential dialysis supplies and shredded nearby tents. Families who had gone to sleep believing conditions might finally improve awoke to evacuation orders, fled barefoot and returned to find their shelter, food, water and bedding buried beneath the wreckage.
“We went to sleep under a ceasefire… thinking that the situation would get better.”
Washington calls this peace while Israel continues bombing homes, destroying medical supplies, displacing families and expanding the territory under its military control. Palestinians are being asked to surrender their weapons and trust a political process that has yet to protect them from Israeli attacks—or require Israel to surrender anything in return.
A ceasefire cannot be measured by statements from Trump’s Board of Peace, meetings with Netanyahu or promises of some future withdrawal. It must be measured by whether Palestinians can sleep without being bombed, receive medical treatment, return home and live without an occupying army steadily closing in around them. By that standard, Gaza does not have peace. It has an occupation and a continuing war concealed beneath the language of diplomacy.
Huge Uptick In Israeli Airstrikes On Gaza Since Trump Hailed ‘Historic’ Hamas Deal
by Tyler Durden, Aug 04, 2026 , https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/huge-uptick-israeli-airstrikes-gaza-trump-hailed-historic-hamas-deal
Middle East regional media has reported a huge uptick in Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip since President Trump announced a “historic” agreement which Hamas finally signed on to.
The agreement would result in a phased complete disarmament of Hamas and the handing over of governance to newly proposed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) – a body designed to replace both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
However, fighting has persisted, with Al Jazeera reporting that at least 19 Palestinians killed on Saturday in Israeli attacks and that the total deal toll from the weekend is now 26 people, including women and children.
srael continues to express skepticism in the face of Washington’s recent optimism:
Despite Hamas agreeing to a phased disarmament, Israel’s government says it has “serious security concerns” about the plan, and there has been strong resistance from Israeli politicians to the deal.
The continued bombardment of Gaza, contributing to Israel’s continued breaches of October’s “ceasefire” agreement, will likely threaten Trump’s peace plan and exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation for Palestinians in the enclave.
Reuters had on Sunday reported an entire day of fresh IDF bombardment on Gaza.
“Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza for a second straight day on Sunday, killing at least 18 Palestinians, medics said, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough in efforts to implement last year’s ceasefire agreement,” Reuters wrote.
“From dawn, Israeli warplanes hit Gaza City in the north, the central city of Deir al-Balah and the southern area of Khan Younis, causing the biggest daily death toll in weeks, according to Palestinian health officials,” it added.
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen issued the Netanyahu government’s view on Sunday: “In the deal we signed with the United States, our stance is that Hamas must be dismantled. This is the first thing that must happen.”
Cohen expressed that Israeli is “very skeptical” that Hamas would actually disarm. And PM Netanyahu’s office said: “The most important concern for Israel is that nothing can happen before Hamas completely and truly disarms.”c
So while the US and regional leaders are busy celebrating and hailing the plan, the proverbial devil will be in the details and in the process – and needless to say a lot could go wrong.
On pro-Palestinian advocate and author worries that Gaza will continue to be destroyed, but that international coverage and cameras have in effect moved on: “There was a time when every explosion in Gaza flashed across my phone – horrible images of children being pulled from rubble, medical workers trying to help patients as the hospital itself gets bombed, and families howling in grief as Israeli bombs obliterated entire Palestinian lineages,” Vijay Prashad observes.
Prashad adds: “Israel’s attacks continue as families flee from one temporary shelter to another and children search through shattered concrete for fragments of lives they once knew. But the world’s attention has shifted elsewhere as the genocide has become routine. We have become comfortably numb.”
Israel’s Ghoulish Settlers Eye Up Gaza, As Netanyahu Kills Trump’s Board of Peace
ANTIWAR.COM by Andy Worthington | Jul 29, 2026
On Sunday evening (July 19), a group of some of the most repulsive, ghoulish people on the face of the earth marched towards the perimeter fence separating the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world to declare their intention to re-colonize Gaza, to re-establish three Israeli settlements that were dismantled in 2005 when, under Ariel Sharon, 21 settlements in total were abandoned, occupied, at the time, by 8,000 Israeli settlers.
These fanatical Israeli settlers, on what was billed as the “March of Thousands”, although only a few hundred people attended, were led by the two far-right ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government — Itamar Ben Gvir, the Minister for National Security, who is in charge of Israel’s prisons, which, for Palestinians, have become a gulag of torture facilities since October 7, 2023, and Bezalel Smotrich, the Minister of Finance, and also the minister in charge of settlement affairs within the Defense Ministry, who has played a huge role in the ever-growing, and ever more violent expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Speaking at the rally, Ben Gvir said, “If someone had said three years ago that we would control 70% of the Gaza Strip, no one would have believed it. So today I say: there will be Jewish settlement throughout Gaza. We are returning home. Gaza is ours.”
Smotrich, meanwhile, warned that a change of government in the forthcoming elections in October, could “roll back all the Zionist and national settlement revolution” undertaken over the last four years.
The two men were accompanied by more than two dozen ministers and legislators, as well as the 80-year old settler fanatic Daniella Weiss, who told the crowd, “They ask me, ‘What will happen to the Arabs in Gaza?’ There will be no Arabs in Gaza, unequivocally.”
Netanyahu’s reticence in the face of selective western outrage about the West Bank
Although Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party was listed as a sponsor of the rally, Netanyahu was noticeably silent about it. This, undoubtedly, wasn’t because he fundamentally opposes the settlers’ aspirations to re-colonize Gaza, but because, while western countries have been and continue to be largely indifferent to the almost immeasurable military slaughter and destruction in Gaza, they have been far more outspoken about settler activities in the West Bank.
On May 28 this year, the EU imposed sanctions on three individuals and four violent settler movements, including Daniella Weiss and her Nachala Settlement Movement, which, as they described it, “encourages and facilitates coercive acts that lead to the forced displacement of Palestinians”, and whose “outposts obstruct access to Palestinian agricultural and grazing land and have been persistent sources of settler violence.”
Netanyahu is also aware that both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich were sanctioned last June by the governments of the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway “for their repeated incitement of violence against Palestinian civilians” in the West Bank, followed by Slovenia and the Netherlands in July, and Spain in September, even though neither man has yet been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court — for war crimes and crimes against humanity — as is the case with Netanyahu himself, and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant……………………………..
Psychotic indifference to genocide — from Israel to Jared Kushner
What was particularly sickening about Sunday’s rally was the gleeful indifference of those gathered — as a beautiful sunset incongruously lit up the sky — to the fact that they were overlooking a vast concentration camp, the size of east London, which is littered with the buried corpses of at least 10,000 Palestinians………………………….
Kushner’s vision was also devoid of Palestinians, as, of course, is the settlers’ vision.
Israel strangles Trump’s Board of Peace
When it comes to Jared Kushner’s grandiose, heartless, profit-driven visions of a futuristic “New Gaza”, the realities of dealing with the Israelis seem to have made it evaporate, as Julian Borger reported for the Guardian in an article last week, entitled, “Trump’s Board of Peace drops full Gaza recovery plan in favour of tiny pilot scheme.”…………………………………………………..
As Borger described it, “The Gaza recovery plan being pursued by Donald Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP) has shrunk dramatically from an ambitious blueprint for the reconstruction of the whole territory to a small pilot project in the south of the strip……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Is there a way forward?
Most noticeably, however, what Borger’s discussions with those on the ground in Israel reveal is how the Israeli government itself retains so much control over the Board of Peace’s plans, and can, as it has with the ceasefire deal in general, fail to fulfil its obligations as and when it wishes, and can also provide further obstruction simply by refusing to deal with requests for cooperation………………………………………………………
Will any leaders in the west wake up, and see that, beyond the grim settler violence in the West Bank, which they are so ready to criticize, they have allowed Trump’s largely empty contributions to Gaza’s future to enable them to pretend that something far, far worse isn’t happening right next to the West Bank, in the grotesque, ongoing death camp depravity of the Gaza Strip? https://original.antiwar.com/worthington/2026/07/28/israels-ghoulish-settlers-eye-up-gaza-as-netanyahu-kills-trumps-board-of-peace/
Stillborn Peace Plans: Israel, Hamas and the Question of Disarmament
Another peace plan, celebrated by its proponents yet doomed to a stillborn reality.
5 August 2026 Dr Binoy Kampmark , https://theaimn.net/stillborn-peace-plans-israel-hamas-and-the-question-of-disarmament/
Another trumpeted achievement, another heralded occasion of momentous significance. Or it may be nothing of the sort. US President Donald J. Trump is again on the stage pulling on the strings of history. This time, attention has shifted to whether Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip will disarm, something conditional on Israel withdrawing its forces from the war-torn enclave. And there, we are presented with the first, insoluble problem.
The latest roadmap published by the US-led Board of Peace is intended to advance the rest of Trump’s 20-point peace plan signed by Hamas and Israel in October 2025. It involves the respective cessation by Israel, Hamas and relevant Palestinian factions of “all military operations in accordance with Sharm Sheikh Protocol and the Peace Plan.” According to Nickolay Mladenov, chief envoy of the Board, “intense efforts” involving Egypt, Türkiye, Qatar and the US had been brought to bear on “the Palestinian factions in Gaza to agree to a Roadmap on the full implementation of President Trump’s plan, to hand over civilian governance and to decommission their weapons.”
Once approved by the parties, a timetable and the implementation phase will be prepared within a fortnight, to be extended as necessary by the International Verification Committee (IVC). On completion, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is to enter the Strip to assume its responsibilities. According to the plan, Hamas and the other factions are to yield control over civilian governance and security in Gaza to the National Committee in accordance with Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan. The NCAG is to “enjoy full independence in carrying out its responsibilities and the factions shall not interfere in NCAG affairs during the transitional period, in accordance with UNS Resolution 2803 (2025).”
The NCAG is also tasked with pursuing “a comprehensive audit of the financial and administrative affairs in Gaza, and protect, recover and administer public assets and resources.” Claims from suppliers, contractors and other parties, up to a total of US$400 million, will be assessed by the Committee, with unresolved financial rights, liabilities or claims addressed “within the context of a wider national process later.”
The Committee will apparently operate “according to the principle of One Authority, One Law, One Weapon,” though the plan, without giving much by way of detail, is clear that “Palestinian laws, relevant international standards and the principles of good governance” shall apply. Police personnel shall be added to “existing police structures” and “undergo a comprehensive vetting.” Those not cutting the mustard can still find themselves in civilian employment “consistent with their earlier experience or retire in accordance with Palestinian law. None of those shall be deprived of their financial rights, particularly due to financial affiliation.”
Once the remaining commitments of the Sharm Sheikh Protocol are completed, along with the entry of NCAG and the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), decommissioning and storing “heavy weapons, military production sites, depots of weapons, and tunnels” will take place, supervised by the authority “in a gradual, sequential and time-bound manner.” The proviso here is that Israel shall withdraw “in phases, from areas under its control in Gaza” as armed militias are decommissioned.
The weapons of the militias are to be decommissioned and stored under NCAG authority in accordance with a timetable. Foolishly, and unrealistically, the deal is weakened by the requirement that no one from those militias is to “be integrated in the security and police services.” Shadows of post-invasion Iraq in 2003, when the US-led forces engaged in an extravagant removal and purging of Baathist personnel, thereby leaving them ripe for future insurrection, are cast.
The ISF is to eventually be deployed in the Strip “to separate the Israeli forces from NCAG-controlled areas.” (At this point, that force will draw upon the reserves of Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania.) The force will not be in the business of policing “or missions related to the Palestinian society.” Its role, it would seem, is more one of monitoring compliance with the ceasefire, training the Palestinian police complement, and ensuring the protection and delivery of humanitarian aid and essential supplies into the Strip. NCAG is to be supported, at its request, in other non-policing missions. Israeli forces will then complete a phased withdrawal from the Strip in accordance with Trump’s peace plan, “which includes a commitment not to force anyone to leave the Strip.” From then on, NCAG will handle “internal security incidents.” At that stage, reconstruction of the enclave, to be supervised by the Board of Peace and NCAG, is to take place.
The plan, as with previous iterations on peace regarding Gaza, remains incurably brittle. Since last year’s October ceasefire, Palestinian deaths have risen to 73,000. (The number stood at 67,000 at the commencement of the ceasefire.) The slaughtering approach of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) towards those clinging to the Strip has been only slightly moderated. The IDF has also hungrily extended its control to almost 70% of the territory well beyond the Yellow Line stipulated by the ceasefire and destroyed, according to a BBC verify report published last November, upwards of 1,500 buildings.
On August 3, Mladenov met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in what he described as a “[l]ong day in Jerusalem.” This heralded “the start of the hard phase and I have never pretended otherwise.” From here on, the work would be “slow, grinding and technical.” During the course of conversations Mladenov is said to have requested a halt to attacks by Israel on the Strip, which he had lamented in a post the previous day. The weekend following the announcement of the roadmap saw the killing of 25 Palestinians and given the usual justifications: a strike on Deir-al-Balah which left four dead had targeted two Hamas commanders; the strikes on Gaza City and Jabalia had been against “military operatives.”
The Israeli attitude to the latest plans is one of profound and sabotaging scepticism. Doron Spielman, spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, stated the position on August 2: “Our assessment is that if we redeploy before Hamas is truly disarmed, it will quickly expand its presence throughout Gaza, rebuild its terrorist infrastructure, once again threaten Israeli communities, and seek to carry another October 7-style attack.” In a statement from the same office released on July 30 is clear: the onus is entirely on Hamas to effectively will itself into impotence and subservience through disarming, “including the removal of the weaponry from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a condition for any process.”
Members of the Israeli cabinet are also pre-empting any move on the part of the ISF to move into Gaza. An August 3 letter from the patriotically rabid Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlements Minister Orit Strock demanded that Netanyahu convene the security cabinet to bar the entry of ISF troops. The roadmap from the Board of Peace was “dangerous to Israel and completely contradicts the disarming of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza.” The plan should be blocked, and the outline amended by the Peace Council “so that it aligns with the goals of the war and the commitments made to Israel.” Another peace plan, celebrated by its proponents yet doomed to a stillborn reality.
Israel Is Erasing Entire Gaza Families From The Civil Registry
July 25, 2026,SCHEERPOST, Nora Barrows-Friedman The Electronic Intifada
The following is from the news roundup during the 23 July livestream. Watch the entire episode here.
Israel has carried out massacres on multiple families this week in Gaza, killing Palestinian children, men and women, as the army encroaches on more land and squeezes Palestinians into smaller and smaller areas.
On Wednesday, an Israeli drone strike on a tent sheltering displaced people killed a Palestinian and injured several others west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to medical sources.
Thirteen Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli attacks on Tuesday, including a strike on a home in the pre-dawn hours that killed six members of a family in Gaza City.
The Cradle reports that Feras al-Masri, his wife Salsabil, and their four children – Naim, 13 years old, Feryal, 11, Salma, 9, and Amira, 6 – were killed while they were sleeping. The Israeli drone strike engulfed the entire home in flames, and rescue crews say they found the bodies so completely burned that identification efforts were extremely difficult.
The explosion also forced residents in surrounding areas to flee in search of safety, while shrapnel reportedly reached nearby displacement camps, piercing tents housing displaced Palestinians, The Cradle added.
Palestinian Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal reported from the wreckage of the home, holding a piece of the loitering munition, a so-called “suicide drone,” that hit the building.
He said the residents were burned alive, and added that rescuers could hear them screaming and begging to be pulled out, but all attempts had failed.
The Civil Defense has warned repeatedly that Israel’s deliberate targeting of its vehicles and equipment, along with the scarce amount of fuel and lack of spare parts to repair damaged or worn-out vehicles has made rescue efforts like these nearly impossible.
Videos circulated on social media show Civil Defense crews pulling the charred remains of bodies, some of them small, out of the building in the aftermath of the strike.
Four Palestinians were killed in a separate strike on Tuesday, also in Gaza City, when an Israeli missile targeted the entrance to the Muslim Young Women’s Association building……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Gaza’s stolen landscape
In addition to the massacres, airstrikes and sniper attacks on people across Gaza this week, the Israeli army continues to carry out heavy demolitions of entire neighborhoods on the eastern side of the so-called yellow line.
The United Nations high commissioner for human rights’ office said this week that more than nine months after the announcement of a so-called ceasefire, “still, nowhere is safe for Palestinians in Gaza.”…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Israeli army, settlers kill Palestinians in West Bank
Turning to the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers and settlers shot and killed two Palestinians during a raid on the village of Deir Jarir near Ramallah on the night of 19 July.
The Palestinian health ministry said that Awda Farakhna, 53, and Ahmed Abdul Abu Mukh, 26, were killed and several others were injured in the attack.
Local sources told the Wafa news agency that Israeli occupation forces also opened fire at an ambulance transporting one of the injured Palestinians to the hospital.
The Guardian newspaper reports that Israeli settlers from a nearby colony outpost arrived after 9 pm, “claiming that they were searching for stolen livestock. Israeli soldiers and police soon joined them, protecting them as they sought to take several villagers’ sheep by force.”
But when people in the village “raised the alarm and a crowd gathered, soldiers shot two men, beginning a night of three successive raids by settlers from nearby outposts and Israeli soldiers that lasted until after 2 am, according to Palestinian residents of Deir Jarir.”
In interviews with The Guardian, as they buried their relatives, “family and friends of the dead Palestinian men described several attacks each month in which they said settlers, backed by Israeli forces, arrived in houses on the outskirts of the village and then stole livestock.”
“It’s a partnership between the army and the settlers,” Adel Rashid, the father of the younger victim, Ahmed Abu Mukh, told the newspaper……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………https://scheerpost.com/2026/07/25/israel-is-erasing-entire-gaza-families-from-the-civil-registry/
‘Gaza Is One Giant Graveyard’
SCHEERPOST, July 21, 2026, Marah Abdel Jaber Prism
A seasoned humanitarian aid worker directing distributions to Gaza since the start of Israel’s genocide in October 2023 went on their first mission to the Strip last winter. During the two-week mission, they conducted a ground assessment: testing the efficacy of aid, recording field interviews with residents, and surveying the functionality of local hospitals. They have requested anonymity in order to share what they learned publicly, and minimize the risk of retaliation from Israeli officials.
In a Q&A with Prism in February, they reflected on the direct role of global humanitarian aid organizations in escalating the dehumanization of Palestinians under Israel’s genocide, the lack of a true ceasefire, and the world’s abandonment of Palestinians.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Marah Abdel Jaber: What were the conditions of Gaza upon your arrival?
Humanitarian Aid Worker: When entering, we crossed through the Karem Abu Salem border and drove straight across the militarized yellow zone through Rafah. If I didn’t know any better, I wouldn’t think that it was an actual city before. It’s almost entirely flattened, and most of it has been bulldozed. As we made our way up towards Khan Younis, we saw some demolished buildings and rubble. You would never think that there were people living there before. It was obvious that the Israeli forces were bulldozing away evidence of war crimes, the genocide, and the dead. That was all I could think about while driving through it.
Abdel Jaber: What was a typical day in the field for you?
HAW: My role required visiting different programs that [a medical NGO] was running and giving feedback. I also looked into some of their pilot programs or their areas of interest for launching new programs. I visited a lot of different clinics, hospitals, a school, and even an orphanage. I spoke with different parts of the population dealing with orphaned or unaccompanied separated children, the elderly, amputees, or those receiving therapy. I had quite a diverse exposure to the issues that the population is facing there, in addition to the aid situation and the distribution.
Abdel Jaber: What was most striking about the reality on the ground?
HAW: The living conditions are horrendous. Many people don’t know about the reality on the ground because mainstream media is pushing the narrative of a ceasefire to distract from the next phase of the colonial project: to build on top of a cemetery. Gaza is essentially one giant graveyard. Airstrikes are happening in the dozens, day and night; the Israeli military ships would still shoot out from the sea; and fighter jets and drones were everywhere. Oftentimes people would tell me that I should have visited Gaza before the genocide, because it was heaven. It would stop me. I couldn’t bear the thought of that. It was still occupation, injustice, and apartheid, but they would say it was better than now. They want the Palestinian people to choose which level of oppression they have. You can have minimal or maximum oppression, because you will never have absolute freedom. These are your options. Genocide, or apartheid and occupation.
“People would tell me I should have visited Gaza before the genocide, because it was heaven. … I couldn’t bear the thought of that. It was still occupation, injustice, and apartheid, but they would say it was better than now.”
Abdel Jaber: How would you qualify the ceasefire in Gaza during your mission?
HAW: There was nothing that would indicate an actual ceasefire. People outside of Gaza view this as a successful ceasefire for two reasons. First, the idea that aid is flowing in daily. It is, but it is still incredibly minimal while being distributed inefficiently and ineffectively. Israeli forces are also allowing in consumer goods. This signals that residents can now purchase goods, but the vast majority in Gaza have been without work for two and a half years. And a lot of people lost their money in the banks because the [Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)] destroyed them, so they could no longer access the systems.
The secondary narrative being pushed is that, before the ceasefire, we would hear of hundreds upon hundreds of Palestinians being killed every day. Now you don’t hear as much of that. People assume that there isn’t any more killing, when really dozens will get killed in a day. That’s not a ceasefire…………………………………………………………………………………………..
HAW: Everything that we’re seeing in this genocide in Gaza, everything that the Israeli forces have implemented, is intentional. It is by design. There is nothing coincidental about it. The intentional deprivation and inhumane conditions are meant to squeeze every ounce of hope out of Palestinians in Gaza. They signaled to people that if they want to stay in Gaza, they would have to get their aid in this way. The killing was intentional to serve as a warning for everyone else watching that they either starve or die trying to access essential aid. They don’t want them to have options. At first, it seemed like the only option was to leave. Now it looks like what is being done with this Board of Peace, and building this Riviera on a graveyard, is to use Palestinians as cheap labor………………………………………………………………………………………
HAW: Someone asked me the other day, if Israel is hellbent on getting rid of the Palestinian population, why not just drop a bomb and get it over with? Why are they torturing them? Everyone knows the IOF is killing them. Why not just do it? Well, first of all, that would make the genocide too obvious. But what a lot of people miss, and we really have to stress this as often as we can, is that genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, occupation, injustice—and everything all within that realm—is not only physical, it’s psychological. The psychological aspect is crucial. You can control a population through psychological torture. It explains why, even before the genocide, Israel denied the entry of chocolates, wedding gowns, construction paper, and other menial things into Gaza. Cutting off food and medication, not allowing a catheter to come in for a dialysis patient, banning menstrual pads, and more—they want to remind you at every opportunity that they are in control of everything. There is a psychological toll that has detrimental, long-term impacts. The trauma, the lack of education, the epigenetic changes that are going to happen over the years, birth defects, and mental health will take forever to deal with. They want to ensure every aspect of Palestinian society, physical and psychological, has been damaged…………………………………………………………………………………………… https://scheerpost.com/2026/07/21/gaza-is-one-giant-graveyard/
Hamas’s Governance Exit Exposes Israel’s Real Objectives
Abbas Hashemite, July 15, 2026, https://journal-neo.su/2026/07/15/hamass-governance-exit-exposes-israels-real-objectives/
Hamas’s decision to relinquish governance of the Gaza Strip appears to be derived from domestic and international strategic needs, and to further weaken the Israeli propaganda.
Hamas’s Administrative Withdrawal Amid Gaza’s Humanitarian Catastrophe
After ruling Gaza for around two decades, Hamas recently announced that it was prepared and willing to hand over the Strip’s governance to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the technocratic administration set up under US President Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace. According to the spokesperson of Hamas, the decision was made to “remove any pretexts for the [Israeli] occupation.” Indeed, the Israeli genocide, war crimes, occupation, and war of extermination against the Palestinian people persist despite the ceasefire, which took effect in October 2025.
According to a UNOCHA report, “nearly all of Gaza’s current population of 2.1 million people has been displaced, lacking access to sufficient shelter, food, life-saving medical services, clean water, education, and livelihoods.” According to some reports, the IDF has butchered more than 80000 Palestinians from October 7, 2023, to January, 2025; the actual figure is estimated to be much higher, as many bodies are still buried under rubble. The Israeli Defense Forces have also committed many other war crimes, such as raping Palestinian women and intentionally bombing hospitals, mosques, churches, and educational institutions, along with targeting journalists and welfare workers.
There are several indications that the Zionist regime may resume its full-scale genocidal operations in Gaza, using the resistance group’s refusal to surrender its arms and weapons as a pretext. Nonetheless, it appears that the Western nations have put the onus of honoring the deal only on Hamas, and Tel Aviv enjoys the freedom to violate the ceasefire at its will. This is evident from the fact that the IDF continues to kill Palestinian civilians, including women and children, despite the ceasefire. Moreover, it continues to control around 70 percent of the Gaza Enclave.
Why Relinquishing Governance Is a Strategic Calculation, Not a Defeat
Considering these developments, Hamas, in a strategic move, has decided to dissolve the Government Emergency Committee in Gaza. However, considering it as a surrender or defeat would be erroneous. In the current regional and domestic scenario, this was the most accurate move that Hamas could make. Through this move, the resistance group has reaffirmed its commitment to implementing the ceasefire deal and fulfilling Hamas’s objectives.
Even after one of history’s most horrific wars, the Zionist occupational regime has failed to achieve its primary objective: eliminating Hamas. The resistance’s decision to relinquish Gaza’s administration allows Hamas to reorganize its operational and institutional structures, minimize its institutional exposure, and focus on its fundamental objective, the struggle of Palestinian national liberation from the Zionist occupation. The Israeli government has long leveraged on the political, geographical, and ideological division between the West Bank and Gaza. This move would end this leverage and allow the two sides to unite.
A New Test for Israel and International Mediators
Despite this decision, the new administration would not mean complete foreign control over the Strip or exclusion of native Palestinians from politics, as Gaza belongs to its native population, not to any foreign-backed administration. Therefore, the most crucial challenge for the Western mediators will be to rebuild a representative and deeply rooted Palestinian leadership capable of raising the genuine concerns of the native people in the West Bank and Gaza. Otherwise, this new administrative structure will lose its credibility and domestic acceptance.
Another significant point to understand is that resisting and governing are two distinct functions. Therefore, this move must not be mistaken for a withdrawal from resistance. Hamas took this decision to advance its broader strategic objectives. For years, the Zionist regime of Israel has justified its war crimes, genocidal operations, and blockade of the Strip under the pretext of Hamas’s so-called threatening presence for the state.
After the resistance group’s complete compliance with the terms of the ceasefire and its announcement to transfer the administration of the Strip, the Zionist regime now seeks to hinder the implementation of the deal and hamper the National Committee from assuming the administrative responsibilities, to amplify the sufferings of the Palestinian people. This further exposes the propaganda of the Israeli government. It demonstrates that the actual ambition of the occupational regime was never to eliminate Hamas from the government; it was to deprive the Palestinians of their fundamental rights and resistance.
According to the Israeli government, the objective of this recent war was to end Hamas’s government in Gaza. After the recent decision by Hamas, the Israeli government has no reason left to blockade or bomb the Strip. Through this strategic move, Hamas is now confronting all the mediators and actors with their responsibilities. Moreover, this decision has further increased complications for the Zionist regime to legitimize its military aggression and genocidal operations in Gaza. It has been revealed once again that Hamas’s government was never the actual problem, but the refusal of the Palestinians to submit to the Israeli occupation. Through this decision, Hamas has not only gained strategic leverage but also achieved an opportunity to reorganize and restructure itself.
Аbbas Hashemite is a political observer and research analyst for regional and global geopolitical issues. He is currently working as an independent researcher and journalist
1 This Month
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- September 2026 (184)
- August 2026 (330)
- July 2026 (355)
- June 2026 (287)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (267)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (375)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 