Starvation in Gaza
Palestinians brace for nightmare, loss of Israel’s plan to ‘occupy Gaza’
Palestinians are deeply concerned about the plan announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reimpose full military control over the Gaza Strip and displace the residents of Gaza City southward.
Netanyahu has announced his intention to implement these threats on more than one previous occasion, the latest being in an interview with Fox News, where he affirmed his plan to take full control of the Strip, and then hand over governance to an
“Arab civilian government” not linked to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, and posing no threat to Israel.
These threats come amid already deteriorating humanitarian conditions, and with the ongoing effects of Israel’s war that has been raging since October 2023, which has destroyed infrastructure and killed more than 61,000, mainly women and children, and wounded more than 150,000.
The Israeli threats and intentions revive the collective memory of Palestinians in Gaza, who lived under Israeli military rule from the 1967 occupation until the unilateral withdrawal in 2005—a withdrawal that did not end Israeli control over the coastal enclave, as Israel continued to control the crossings, as well as the sea and airspace, imposing a suffocating blockade since 2007.
Today, Gaza’s residents find themselves facing threats that could turn back the clock, amid public demands for Hamas to take clear steps, politically and in negotiations, to stop these threats or at least limit their potential consequences.
Khalil Mohesen, 55, from the al-Nasr neighbourhood in western Gaza City, expressed his concern over the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, recalling memories of Israel’s previous military rule over the area.
“I can never forget when Israeli forces would impose daily curfews from 7 p.m. to 8 a.m.,” Mohesen remarked to The New Arab. “Soldiers roamed the streets, and any movement meant danger to your life. We lived in constant fear, with no sleep and no rest.”
Today, with Netanyahu’s statements about reoccupying Gaza, Mohesen feels the nightmare returning. “The previous occupation experience was enough to destroy our lives, so what if it returns now, when we are already exhausted from a war that has been ongoing for almost three years?”
He directed a direct message to Hamas, urging it to deal with the situation with the utmost seriousness: “Hamas must realise the gravity of the situation. These are not passing threats, but a real possibility that will increase people’s suffering. Hamas must take our people’s suffering into account.”
For months, Sanaa Abou Ajwa, 61, from the al-Rimal neighbourhood in western Gaza City, has been trying to hold on to a thread of hope that the war will end—but Netanyahu’s threats have brought back feelings of frustration and despair.
“I used to dream of seeing this war end soon,” Abu Ajwa told TNA, “but with these threats, I feel the end is far away—and may never come.”
Her memories of the previous Israeli occupation of Gaza are not just passing events, but an open wound. “In 1990, Israeli soldiers killed my son Fadi while he was sitting at the door of our house.
He was not carrying a weapon, nor was he accused of anything. A single bullet ended his life and left me to live with this pain to this day,” she described.
Today, what preoccupies her most is her 31-year-old daughter’s future, saying, “We were preparing for her wedding before the war broke out in October 2023, but the bombing and destruction stopped everything. I was counting the days until I saw her as a bride, but the war froze time.”
“Stop Israel, prevent it from carrying out these threats. We are human beings, we just want to live in peace. We have lost enough—don’t let the little hope we have left disappear,” she pleaded to the world.
Mohammed Shalate, 40, from Nuseirat in central Gaza, sees the reoccupation of the Strip as “the real beginning of the displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza.”
Recalling the years of Israel’s previous occupation of the Strip, he told TNA, while gazing off as if seeing the scene before his eyes: “The Israeli army used to cut off roads between cities and towns in the Strip with dirt mounds and military checkpoints. Sometimes I would need 12 hours to get from Nuseirat to Gaza City—a distance of no more than 15 kilometres—even if it was just a short visit to a relative or to buy medicine.”
“Movement was severely restricted. Soldiers could stop you at any moment, search you, and send you back without any reason. Life was full of obstacles and fear. Even the simplest right—to move freely—was a distant dream,” he added.
With talk of reoccupation returning, Shalate fears the dark past may return. “I don’t want my children to live what we lived. Those restrictions destroyed our social and economic life,” he said.
He sent a clear message to Hamas: “It must show more flexibility in ceasefire talks. People are exhausted, and we need solutions that protect our children’s future. Resistance is not only with weapons, but also with the ability to find a political way out of this catastrophe.”
Meanwhile, Reem al-Khaldi, a 27-year-old university student from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said that the threats of reoccupation have caused her days of unrelenting anxiety.
“Netanyahu wants to empty Gaza of its residents to the south and occupy the city,” al-Khaldi told TNA. “I believe this step is part of a larger plan to forcibly displace Gaza’s residents abroad. The greatest fear is that we will find ourselves outside our land with no return.”
Although she did not live through Israel’s direct occupation of the Strip, the stories her parents told her left a deep imprint on her awareness.
“They told me about the army’s night raids on homes, about the moments of fear when soldiers would suddenly knock on doors and take fathers and young men from their houses. My mother used to say the hardest part was the feeling that your home was no longer a safe place,” she remarked.
Al-Khaldi calls for all Palestinian factions, led by Hamas, to act against this scenario, remarking, “We must prevent this dark future by any possible means, because losing the land this time could be final.”
Political writer and analyst Talal Okal told TNA that Netanyahu’s threats to reoccupy the Gaza Strip carry dimensions beyond mere temporary security control, as they are essentially “a strategic step aimed at blocking any possibility of establishing a future Palestinian state.”
Okal explained that Netanyahu’s intention to hand over the administration of Gaza to an “Arab civilian government” not linked to Hamas or the Palestinian Authority reinforces this goal, as “he in no way wants the Palestinian Authority to regain control of the Strip, because that would lay the groundwork for further international recognition of the Palestinian state—something he is determined to prevent entirely.”
In recent days and weeks, there has been a growing trend among countries around the world toward recognising the Palestinian state, the latest being Australia’s 11 August announcement of its intention to recognise the State of Palestine next September.
Okal added that for months during the war, Netanyahu “has been deceiving everyone, especially the United States, by portraying himself as willing to reach a ceasefire agreement, while in reality implementing on the ground a gradual plan to reoccupy the Strip.”
He pointed out that the field measures taken by Israel, including the establishment of the “Morag Corridor” separating Rafah from Khan Younis in the south of the Strip, and the “Netzarim Corridor” splitting the north of the Strip from the south, “were not merely temporary military steps, but part of a comprehensive vision to reimpose full Israeli control over Gaza.”
“Netanyahu is using the war as a cover for a long-term political project aimed at aborting the Palestinian national project and keeping Gaza isolated and under direct Israeli domination,” Okal said.
About The Author
