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• Happening now: Israel’s security cabinet is meeting now to decide whether the country fully reoccupies Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza.
• Sharp criticism: Israel’s military chief has warned against a full takeover, according to sources. Israel’s opposition leader said the move would lead to “more dead hostages,” and families of the hostages still held in Gaza have blasted the proposed expanded war as a “death sentence.”
• Some history: Israel fully occupied Gaza after capturing it in the 1967 war, but withdrew in 2005. Since the war with Hamas began in 2023, Israel has recaptured large swaths of the territory.
• Humanitarian crisis: There has been a surge in malnutrition among Gaza’s children, according to a UN report, as only a fraction of aid is entering the strip. CNN got an aerial view of the widespread destruction in the enclave while on an aid flight.
Nearly 12,000 children in Gaza were acutely malnourished in July, UN says
The United Nations recorded 11,877 children under five years old as being acutely malnourished in Gaza this July — the highest monthly figure ever recorded, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Of those children, 2,562 suffered from severe acute malnutrition and 40 were hospitalized at stabilization centres, OCHA said.
“This is clear evidence that malnutrition is accelerating rapidly, putting young lives at grave risk,” UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, warned on Thursday.
The organization said the surge in acute malnourishment in children is “staggering.” In February, 2,000 children were identified as such, according to OCHA.
OCHA reported that it and its partner organizations were only able to reach 3% of the children under five who need feeding and micronutrient supplements.
Human rights groups and the UN say that aid convoys being allowed into Gaza are just a fraction of what is needed amid the starvation crisis and rising malnutrition-related deaths in the enclave.
Additionally, only 1.5% of Gaza’s farmland can be accessed and is undamaged as of July 28, a report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UN Satellite Center (UNOSAT) found.
The crisis “demands an urgent, scaled-up response,” UNICEF said. “We know how to prevent and treat malnutrition. The tools exist. The expertise exists. But without safe, sustained access, they mean nothing. Nutrition supplies must reach children - before more lives are lost,” UNICEF said.
CNN video shows aerial view of Gaza during Jordanian aid drop flight over the devastated enclave
CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance joined the Royal Jordanian Air Force as aid was dropped into the Gaza Strip.
Chance noted the “complete level of destruction” that he saw during the flight. He described flying over neighborhoods that he had visited in the past being just a “pile of rubble.”
Organizations have also criticized aid airdrops as inefficient, costly and dangerous.
Watch the full video:
Analysis: Netanyahu weighing Gaza takeover despite "real dissent" from Israelis, CNN analyst says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s push to take over all of Gaza is coming amid “real dissent on the ground” in Israel, CNN global analyst Kimberly Dozier said.
Dozier told CNN’s Paula Newton that in many respects, Netanyahu is going against the desire by a large number of Israelis to end the war.
She added that even some within the Israeli military are growing wary of the war in Gaza.
“Israeli military commanders are saying publicly that the Israeli military is exhausted, reservists are starting to say no to further tours in Gaza, even if it gets them arrested. So there is real dissent on the ground,” Dozier said.
Dozier explained that there are more reports coming out to the Israeli public about how Palestinians “are starving, the food difficulties that, everyone is facing there. And more and more Israelis are believing it.”
Protests held across Israel as cabinet votes on full reoccupation of Gaza
Protests were held across Israel on Thursday as the country’s security cabinet votes on whether to expand its military campaign and fully reoccupy Gaza.
Video from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum showed a large group of protesters gathered in front of the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, where the cabinet gathered. The crowd rallied around a large, unfurled Israeli flag with images of the hostages held in Gaza printed on it, chanting for an end to the war in Gaza and the return of all those who remain in Hamas captivity.
Anat Angrest, the mother of an Israeli soldier who was taken hostage by Hamas, told Netanyahu’s government in a statement that “for a year and ten months, we’ve been trying to believe that everything is being done to bring them back - you have failed.”
In Tel Aviv, footage showed demonstrators marching outside the headquarters of Netanyahu’s Likud party, similarly calling on the government to ensure the safe return of the remaining hostages.
Smaller protests also took place in Israeli cities like Herzeliyah, Ra’anana, and Ness Ziona.
Families of some Israeli hostages sailing toward Gaza in a desperate move to put pressure on Netanyahu
Families of some of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza have sailed toward the Palestinian enclave today, in an attempt to put pressure on the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it contemplates expanding the war in Gaza.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, as well as the opposition and a large part of the Israeli public, are strongly against the expansion of the operation, arguing it would put their loved ones at even more risk.
As the flotilla set off from the port of Ashkelon in southern Israel, Lior Horev from the forum told CNN the sailing was “an SOS call.”
Yehuda Cohen, father of hostage Nimrod Cohen, said that Netanyahu is “working against the hostages.”
Watch Cohen’s full remarks:
Read more about the families sailing toward Gaza.
Hamas says Netanyahu is sacrificing hostages "to serve his personal interests"
Hamas said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take military control of Gaza would amount to the “sacrifice” of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza “to serve his personal interests.”
In a statement on Thursday, the militant group accused the Israeli prime minister of the “blatant reversal of the negotiation process” after he told Fox News that Israel intends to take military control of Gaza.
“Netanyahu’s statements represent a blatant reversal of the negotiation process, and clearly reveal the true motives behind his withdrawal from the last round, despite our proximity to reaching a final agreement,” Hamas said.
Netanyahu’s comments came shortly before Israel’s security cabinet convened to vote on a full reoccupation of Gaza. The potential expansion of Israel’s military campaign has been met with resistance by some Israelis who seek an end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages.
The prime minister’s plans would be a “continuation of the policy of extermination and displacement,” Hamas added.
The group said Gaza would “remain resistant to occupation” and called on the international community to reject Netanyahu’s comments.
Israel's military chief cautions against full Gaza takeover
Israel’s military chief warned against a full takeover of Gaza, according to three Israeli sources familiar with the discussions.
In a meeting with top officials on Tuesday evening, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir cautioned that fully conquering Gaza would trap the military within the enclave and put the remaining hostages at risk, the sources said.
Such a move, Zamir said, would also increase the burden on Israeli forces when the military is already suffering from attrition and burnout rates amongst reservist forces.
According to two of the sources, Zamir’s plan called for encircling Gaza City and other neighborhoods in which hostages might be held, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pushing for a more intrusive operation into the heart of the areas.
More context: The latest disagreement underscores the growing discord between Israel’s military leadership and its political echelon. Israel’s military has recommended pursuing diplomacy to end the war, while Netanyahu and his government have pushed for maximalist war goals.
Zamir’s warning once again put the new military chief at odds with the far-right parties in Israel’s government, who have repeatedly called for broadening Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza to destroy Hamas, something Israel has been unable to do despite nearly two years of fighting.
Israel's opposition leader criticizes Netanyahu: "More war, more dead hostages"
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s earlier comments about taking full control of Gaza.
“What Netanyahu is offering is more war, more dead hostages, more ‘now cleared for publication’ notices, and tens of billions of taxpayer shekels poured into the delusions of (Itamar) Ben Gvir and (Bezalel) Smotrich,” Lapid said, referring to Israel’s far-right national security minister and finance minister, who have repeatedly urged Netanyahu to pursue more maximalist goals in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu: Israel intends to take control of all of Gaza, but "we don't want to keep it"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier today that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza before handing it over to forces that will govern it properly.
In an interview with Fox News shortly before Israel’s security cabinet was due to vote on a full reoccupation of Gaza, Netanyahu was asked whether Israel plans to control the entire enclave.
The prime minister said Israel is aiming to “remove Hamas” in Gaza before handing the territory “to civilian governance that is not Hamas, and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel.”
“That’s what we want to do. We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas,” he said.
Netanyahu did not say who he envisions governing Gaza after the war, and Israel has not presented such a plan.
Israel fully occupied Gaza after capturing it in the 1967 war, but withdrew from the strip in 2005. Since the war with Hamas began in 2023, Israel has recaptured large swaths of the territory.
Here's what a proposed Israeli plan for Gaza could include
Israel’s security cabinet is set to decide on a full reoccupation of Gaza, a move that would mark a major escalation of the conflict in after nearly two years of war in the territory.
An expanded operation would see Israel encircle and potentially enter the few remaining areas in Gaza that are outside its direct control in an effort to destroy Hamas.
According to an Israeli official with knowledge of the proposal, the phased plan under consideration would:
- Force approximately a million Palestinians in Gaza City and other areas into evacuation areas in southern Gaza
- Establish compounds to house the massive influx of displaced Palestinians
- Increase the number of aid distribution sites operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) from the current four up to 16 sites
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