Netanyahu to speak Before UN Convenes Emergency Session on Gaza Takeover Plan

Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1627 EAT on Sunday 10 August 2025

News of the Israeli government’s decision to seize control of Gaza City has been met with widespread despair across the enclave. Gaza City — the region’s capital — now faces what many fear is a countdown to devastation.

Unless Hamas capitulates in the coming weeks — and there is currently little indication that it will — the Israeli military appears poised to launch a new and potentially catastrophic phase of the war.

For Gaza City, where an estimated one million civilians remain, the outlook is grim.

Many of those residents are among the hundreds of thousands who fled during the early months of the conflict but returned in January after a temporary ceasefire raised hopes of a lasting peace.

Since then, they have endured more than a year of displacement, moving from one refuge to another under increasingly desperate conditions. Now, they face the threat of renewed violence in a city already battered by war.

When residents returned to northern Gaza, many found their homes reduced to rubble and entire neighborhoods wiped off the map. Despite this, they settled wherever they could, holding onto hope that the war was finally over.

However, life in the city—already fraught with hardship—deteriorated sharply after Israel broke the ceasefire in mid-March and cut off aid supplies, plunging Gaza into the worst humanitarian crisis of the conflict.

Now, with tensions escalating once again, it appears a new, devastating cycle is about to begin.

Israel’s plan to expand military operations into Gaza City has drawn widespread international criticism — including from some of its closest allies.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk warned the move would result in “more massive forced displacement, more killing, [and] unbearable suffering” in Gaza. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the decision to be “reconsidered,” while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned it as a “fully-fledged crime.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a suspension of arms exports to Israel that could be used in Gaza, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the plan as “wrong,” warning it would “only bring more bloodshed.”

Within Israel, families of hostages expressed concerns that the expanded operations could endanger those held captive, while thousands of citizens protested the decision to escalate the conflict.

Arab nations, including Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, also condemned Israel’s proposals, describing the ongoing actions as “ethnic cleansing.”

China’s Foreign Ministry emphasized that “Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people and is an inseparable part of Palestinian territory,” calling urgently for an immediate ceasefire.

Meanwhile, during a visit to the UK, US Vice-President JD Vance stated that the Trump administration aimed to see Hamas eradicated to prevent further attacks on Israeli civilians, while also seeking a resolution to the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry has reported five additional deaths from malnutrition in the past 24 hours — two of them children. According to the ministry, the total number of deaths attributed to malnutrition has now reached 217, including 100 children.

Last month, UN-backed global food security experts warned that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” in the Gaza Strip.

The crisis worsened after Israel imposed a total blockade on aid at the beginning of March — a measure that was only partially eased after 11 weeks. In May, the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by both Israel and the United States, began distributing aid at four designated sites across the Strip.

However, access to food remains perilous. Earlier this month, the UN reported that at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food since late May. Of those, 859 were reportedly killed near GHF distribution points and 514 along known aid routes. GHF has denied the UN’s figures.

Israel, meanwhile, maintains that it has placed no restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries, accusing the UN and other humanitarian agencies of poor logistics and Hamas of intercepting supplies. Despite mounting evidence of widespread hunger, disease, and malnutrition, Israeli officials have continued to deny that starvation exists in Gaza.

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