On 8 August 2025, following a proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan for the full takeover of Gaza City. This official decision marks a dangerous escalation in Israel’s ongoing genocide, aimed at entrenching its occupation of Gaza as a whole. If carried out, the plan will bring about renewed waves of mass killing, destruction, and forced displacement, deepening the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis of Israel’s own making.
Al Mezan warns that, if implemented, the plan will force the depopulation of Gaza City, thereby triggering a new wave of internal displacement and concentrating Palestinians into the already overburdened Al-Mawasi areas. These small, overcrowded areas already lack the most basic necessities to sustain human life, including adequate shelter, food, water, and sanitation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are already confined there in extremely harsh and unsafe conditions. The arrival of thousands upon thousands of additional fleeing civilians would push these areas beyond the brink, risking an environment of chaos, acute suffering, and total collapse – conditions that could then be exploited to justify and facilitate the mass expulsion of Gaza’s population beyond its borders.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urged Israel to halt the plan immediately, warning that it “will result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes”. Al Mezan further warns that, if implemented, this plan would pave the way for the settler-colonization of Gaza City, turning emptied neighborhoods and seized land into outposts for Israeli settlers, while also exacerbating the looming threat of the forcible transfer of Palestinians outside Gaza altogether, which would constitute yet another set of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Twenty-two months into Israel’s genocide, life in Gaza has become unbearable. A permanent and immediate ceasefire must be imposed without delay. Israel must be compelled to comply with all three provisional measures orders issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and to end all genocidal policies at once. In line with the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion, Israel must vacate its presence from the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), which includes Gaza, as rapidly as possible. The international community must also ensure that this withdrawal is carried out and that the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people is fully realized.
Those responsible for crimes committed against the Palestinian people must be held to account, including through the enforcement of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. Al Mezan further urges the ICC to add new charges against Netanyahu and all members of the Israeli security cabinet, including genocide and the war crimes of forcible transfer.
What is urgently needed to stop the implementation of Netanyahu’s plan to take over Gaza City are tangible actions, not empty statements. Statements are meaningless and serve only to enable Israel to continue its genocide if they are not followed by sanctions, arms embargoes, or other binding and concrete measures.
