Instead of respite, Gaza's war-torn brace for full Israeli occupationhttps://en.majalla.com/node/326925/politics/instead-respite-gazas-war-torn-brace-full-israeli-occupation
Instead of respite, Gaza's war-torn brace for full Israeli occupation
After nearly two years of bombing, death, and displacement, a further mass evacuation order from the north to the south is pending, with the Israeli endgame being the settlement of the Strip
Lina Jaradat
Instead of respite, Gaza's war-torn brace for full Israeli occupation
In the first week of August, a flurry of Israeli statements announced the government’s intention to fully occupy the Gaza Strip, imposing security and military control, even though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s Chief-of-Staff Eyal Zamir seemed to disagree over the merits of the plan. It followed weeks of unsuccessful talks between representatives of Hamas and Israel, with no agreement reached over a temporary ceasefire or even prisoner exchange.
Mamdouh Hasb Allah, 47, from Gaza, expressed his feelings after nearly two years of war. “We are exhausted from the bombing, the killing, the displacement, the destruction, and on top of that, the starvation,” he told Al Majalla. “I had hoped we could have a break from the fear and anxiety, even for a limited time. If the negotiations had continued, they might have announced the end of the war, and we could have returned to our destroyed neighbourhoods.”
Hasb Allah lives with his wife and their seven children in one of hundreds of tents for displaced people along the coastal strip west of Gaza City. They were forced to leave their home in the east of the city in recent months after the Israeli army ordered evacuations to widen the scope of its ground operations, shelling houses and demolishing vast swathes of residential neighbourhoods, under the pretext of pursuing Hamas, tunnels, and weapons.
Imposing control
On 7 August, Israel’s Security Cabinet convened to decide the next steps. The meeting lasted until the early hours of the following morning. The decision, when it finally came, was to impose military control over Gaza City in the north of the Strip, while allowing humanitarian aid trucks to enter. This decision was in line with a plan proposed by Netanyahu, who had rejected one put forward by his army chief.
According to Netanyahu’s office, the plan has five core principles: disarming Hamas; recovering Israeli captives alive or dead; imposing Israeli security control over the Strip; establishing an alternative civilian administration that excludes both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority; and establishing a permanent Israeli military presence.
I had hoped we could have a break from the fear and anxiety, even for a limited time
Mamdouh Hasb Allah, 47, from Gaza
Implementation will be over several stages, beginning with the forced displacement of Palestinian residents from the north of the Strip, who will be moved to the south, mirroring a requirement earlier in the war—one only relieved by a temporary ceasefire. For Hasb Allah and others, it means moving their family from one city to another, as Israel bombs the tents and gathering points of displaced people. "Instead of waiting for the war to end, you start waiting to see when the next displacement will happen, what it will look like," he said. "Who knows what else will happen to us."
A return to tents
Rabab Nasser, 29, shares the confusion and fears. "When we returned to Gaza and reached our home in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, we could hardly believe we were back and done with life in tents and homelessness," she said. "Yes, the war resumed, and the bombing continued, and there were many crises—water, electricity, food—but at least we were back home after losing hope, and we repaired it. Now, how am I supposed to leave my house (again) and return to life in the tents? To homelessness?"
Speaking to Al Majalla, she explained that she had been displaced for more than a year, moving between tents in the south of the Strip. There is no privacy in a tent shared with nine family members, she explained. She has to sleep in her prayer gown, sharing a makeshift bathroom with neighbours, with no kitchen or other basic necessities.
Under the plan recently approved by the Israeli government, more humanitarian aid trucks will be sent, particularly to areas where residents are forced to relocate and gather, but civilians will simultaneously be pushed to leave the northern areas so that the army can impose military control over them. The army had previously seized control of the north, after establishing the Netzarim Corridor south of Gaza City. Until February 2025, this severed the north from the centre and south.
Implementation of the plan is set to begin after 7 October 2025. For Israel, this is ample time to deliver humanitarian aid after weeks of forced deprivation and starvation killed more than 212 people, including 98 children, providing further arguments that Israel has been waging a campaign of genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza.
A man carries the body of Palestinian baby Zainab Abu Haleeb, who died due to malnutrition, according to health officials, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on July 26, 2025.
The living dead
Mar'i Al-Barrawi, 39, describes Palestinians in Gaza as "the living dead," adding: "We are dead but still breathing. At any moment, we could be killed by bombs, hunger or targeted by snipers or drones. Life has become cheap, worthless."
Speaking to Al Majalla, he said the army does not distinguish between military zones and civilian areas, striking displacement camps, shelters, hospitals, vehicles, roads, homes, and apartment buildings. Attacks occur both at night and during the day, often during tasks like fetching food, water, or other necessities.
"The army has tried everything on us," he said. "Humiliated us, crushed us, killed us in every way, even starvation. They starved us. They killed our children, relatives, and friends, deprived us of the blessing of safety, calm, and a home. As long as there are still plans, proposals, and threats, we are still counted among the dead, waiting for our turn."
He has insomnia and depression, he said, due to the war, and now goes to aid-distribution points only to feed his children. "At the start of the war, we wondered how we could live in a tent, if we would cope. We were forced to do it, through summer and winter."
"Then we wondered how we would feed our children. We were forced to take knives, go to the aid trucks, fight for supplies, risk our lives, and face army gunfire and shelling. We reached a point where we stopped thinking about dignity and started thinking only about survival and protecting the children. Today, there is nothing left—no place, no strength, and, most importantly, no choices. We are always forced down a single road filled with death, and the lucky ones survive."
People carry relief supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private US-backed aid group that has circumvented the longstanding UN-led system in Gaza on June 8, 2025.
Israel's war aims remain as they were at the start of its military operations, in October 2023, yet it is still unable to end the war or recover all Israeli captives. Around 50 remain, alive or dead, in various undisclosed locations. Hamas continues to maintain its demands in negotiations that it will return the captives in exchange for an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
But Netanyahu is determined to expand military operations until Israel occupies the entire Gaza Strip, Palestinian political analyst Ismat Mansour says, pointing out that the long-term goal is to push Gaza's Palestinians out of the Strip, paving the way for Israeli settlements there
