Mourners attend the funeral of Palestinian activist and No Other Land contributor Awdah al-Hathaleen, who was killed by Israeli settler Yinon Levi last month
ISRAEL’S security cabinet is due to meet tonight to discuss fully occupying the Gaza Strip, as authorities in the Palestinian territory reported four more deaths from malnutrition and 37 from Israeli military action.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to be keen to conquer all of the coastal enclave, but Israeli media suggested other ministers and army commanders have misgivings. Chief of the General Staff Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir reportedly believes the plan would endanger the lives of hostages still held by Hamas and place strain on the Israeli military, which has been massacring Palestinians across the territory for almost two years.
Demonstrations for a ceasefire and against occupation are planned in multiple Israeli towns tonight, while this morning nearly two dozen relatives of hostages set sail from southern Israel to Gaza’s maritime border, where they delivered messages through loudspeakers opposed to the continuation of the war.
Yehuda Cohen, whose soldier son Nimrod Cohen is still held by Hamas, said that the prime minister was extending the war merely to prevent his government collapsing.
“Netanyahu is working only for himself,” he said.
The conquest of Gaza is opposed even by most of Tel Aviv’s foreign allies, though US President Donald Trump said it was “up to Israel.” The United Nations warned it would be “catastrophic” earlier this week.
Those fears relate to the suspicion that such action would form part of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through the removal of its population, a project floated by Mr Trump and enthusiastically received in Israel.
In Gaza, however, where at least 61,000 people have been killed in the 22 months since Israel invaded, with homes, hospitals, schools, mosques and churches flattened, some suggested it would make little difference. From a displacement camp, Palestinian Maysaa al-Heila said: “There is nothing left to occupy. There is no Gaza left.”
In the West Bank, a hunger strike by Bedouin women secured the release of the body of Awdah al-Hathaleen, a contributor to the internationally acclaimed film No Other Land who was shot dead last month. His killer, Israeli settler Yinon Levi, was briefly held by police but has been released.
