The Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prévot (committed) said Friday that he has summoned the Israel ambassador to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, after the announcement of the Israeli government’s project to occupy the city of Gaza. The Belgian Minister indicates that he wanted to “testify to our total disapproval of this decision, but also as to the continuation of” Israeli colonization in the Palestinian territories. It is now a question of “vigorously pleading for a reverse march of these inclinations”, he adds in a declaration sent to the Belga agency.
In recent days, the proposal of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to opt for a total occupation of the Gaza Strip, including the City of Gaza and the refugee camps located in the center of the territory, has generated fears and disapproval on the side of the Israeli opposition, families of hostages still in the hands of Hamas and largely of the international community. During the night of Thursday to Friday, and despite the opposite opinion of the Israeli army chief, the Israeli security firm approved this option.
Maxime Prévot: “The excitement around Iran should not forget that bombs continue to fall on Gaza”
The UN was quick to react: this plan “must be immediately stopped,” launched the High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.
An opinion shared by the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, whose cabinet sent a brief declaration on Friday. He talks about a series of “inadmissible” acts and “contrary to international law”.
“Following the official confirmation by the Israeli government of its desire to surround and then occupy the city of Gaza and to take military control of the entire Gaza Strip, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prévot has decided to convene the ambassador of Israel. The objective is clearly to testify to our total disapproval as to this decision, but also as to the continuation of colonization, in particular the resumption of the project E1 Jerusalem, and the will to annex the West Bank recently promoted by the Knesset.
“It will be a question of vigorously pleading for a reverse march of these inclinations which would be likely to definitively compromise any prospect of ceasefire and a peaceful and sustainable solution to two states for which Belgium has been insisting for months, without omitting total terrestrial free access for humanitarian aid,” continues the Minister. “If it is legitimate to want to destroy the Hamas terrorist group, this cannot be done through disproportionate operations which will extend even more the already very and too long list of Palestinian civilian victims.”
Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan has been validated: Israel is preparing to occupy the entire Gaza Strip
The Israeli plan for Gaza “will cost Israel and will lead to the” sacrifice “of the hostages
Sraël is preparing to commit a “new war crime” with his plan to take control of the city of Gaza, “a criminal adventure that will cost him dearly” and will lead to the “hostage sacrifice”, said Hamas on Friday.
“The appraisal by the Zionist cabinet of the plans aimed at occupying the city of Gaza and evacuating its inhabitants constitutes a new war crime that the occupation army wishes to commit against the city and its nearly a million inhabitants,” reacted the Palestinian Islamist movement.
“This criminal adventure will cost expensive and will not be an easy trip” for the Israeli army, adds this press release issued on Telegram.
The decision to occupy the city of Gaza, announced on Friday morning after a meeting of the Israeli Prime Minister’s security firm, confirms that Benjamin Netanyahu and his government “do not care about the fate of their hostages”.
“They understood that the extension of the attack means their sacrifice, revealing their recklessness to the life of prisoners for political objectives having already failed”, supports the Islamist movement, which still retains 49 hostages, of which 27 are presumed dead, since its bloody attack on October 7, 2023 from Gaza in Israeli territory.
Hamas and its Islamic jihad ally broadcast three propaganda videos at the end of last week, which shocked in Israel and aroused unanimous international conviction. Two hostages appear very emaciated and weakened there, one of which, held in the darkness of a tunnel, digs his own grave.
In conclusion of its press release, Hamas maintains “that it will spare no effort to take all measures in order to prepare the ground for an agreement, including advancing towards a global agreement to release all the prisoners of the occupation in one go, reaching a stop of the war and the withdrawal of the occupation forces.”
For Hamas to return weapons in the Gaza Strip “is unimaginable”
“Catastrophic”
The Israeli opposition strongly criticized the Israeli government’s project to occupy the city of Gaza. The head of the opposition, Yair Lapid, speaks of “a disaster that will lead to other disasters”, contrary to the advice of the army and the security services, report the Israeli media.
According to Yair Lapid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “caught” by far -right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in an operation that will last for months, will cost hostages and tens of billions and isolated politically Israel. “This is exactly what Hamas wants: locking Israel in an awakening occupation, without plan for the future”.
The leader of the party Yisrael Beyté and former Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman affirms that this decision proves that “vital decisions are taken in defiance of security interests and war objectives”.
Yair Golan, president of the Democrats party, fears that “more hostages will be sacrificed” and qualifies Netanyahu as “weak, easily influenced and unable to make decisions”. According to him, Israel will continue to patrol Gaza “for generations” in Gaza, which will cost hundreds of billions. “How does the government count demilitarize the city of Gaza? Are we going to search each tunnel and recover until the last rifle?”.
The Israeli security firm approved Prime Minister Netanyahu’s proposal on Thursday evening to occupy the city of Gaza. About 800,000 Palestinians live there. Israel currently controls around 75% of the Gaza Strip, inhabited by nearly two million Palestinians. Almost all fled to areas not yet occupied.
In Gaza, people die from hunger in mass while the aid is blocked
London urges Israel to “immediately reconsider” his plan
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the plan announced by Israel on Friday to “defeat” Hamas in Gaza on Friday and urged the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to “reconsider it immediately”.
“The Israeli government’s decision to intensify its offensive in Gaza is an error and we exhort it to reconsider its decision immediately. This action will in no way contribute to the conflict or obtain the release of the hostages. It will only generate more massacres,” Keir Starmer said in a statement.
The Israeli security firm approved on the night of Thursday to Friday a plan presented by Benjamin Netanyahu to “defeat” Hamas and “take control” of the city of Gaza, devastated by the war and prey to a serious humanitarian crisis.
“What we need is a ceasefire, an increase in humanitarian aid and the release of all hostages,” said Keir Starmer, who recalls that London works “with (his) allies” to a “long-term plan to guarantee peace in the region, as part of a solution to two states”.
“Our message is clear: a diplomatic solution is possible, but the two parties must move away from the path of destruction,” insisted Keir Starmer, adding that Hamas “cannot play any role” in the future in Palestinian territory, and must “be disarmed”.
The British Head of Government announced at the end of July that the United Kingdom was planning to recognize the Palestine State in September if Israel did not make a series of commitments, including that of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
In Gaza, the endless quest from an end point to war
Turkey urged the international community on Friday to “prevent” the implementation of the plan presented by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take military control from the city of Gaza.
“We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities with a view to preventing the implementation of this decision, which aims to move the Palestinians from their own land by making Gaza uninhabitable,” wrote the Turkish Foreign Affairs in a statement.
