Israel’s decision to take over Gaza City has met with resignation and defiance by Palestinians who have survived two years of war and repeated raids.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s decision to take over Gaza City was met with resignation and defiance by Palestinians who have survived two years of war and repeated raids. Many Israelis responded with fear and anger, worried it could be a death sentence for hostages held in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday that Israel would intensify its 22-month war with Hamas by taking over Gaza City, large parts of which have been destroyed by past bombardment and ground incursions.

A major ground operation is almost sure to cause more mass displacement and worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

“What does (Israel) want from us? … There is nothing here to occupy,” said a woman in Gaza City who identified herself as Umm Youssef. “There is no life here. I have to walk every day for more than 15 minutes to get drinking water.”

Ruby Chen, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen whose son, Itay, is a hostage held in Gaza, told The Associated Press that the decision puts the remaining hostages in danger.

“What is the plan now that is different from the last 22 months?” he said.

  • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
    847·
    3 days ago

    What does (Israel) want from us?

    the hostages and hamas to disarm? i thought this was well known

    • fif-t@fedia.io
      356·
      3 days ago

      Hamas has made an offer of surrendering completely, returning the prisoners of war (as well as any hostages) and leaving forever in exchange for a Palestinian state. Israel has repeatedly rejected that deal. I wonder why?

      • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
        86·
        3 days ago

        Hamas has made an offer of surrendering completely, returning the prisoners of war (as well as any hostages) and leaving forever in exchange for a Palestinian state

        Source

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
          202·
          3 days ago

          Hamas Member of Parliament Khalil al-Hayya, also deputy chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, told the Associated Press in April 2024 that Hamas is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders.

          - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas#7_Oct_2023–present

          Hamas’s goal has been a Palestinian state for years now. Also, Hamas had already agreed to give back the hostages and not rebuild its military capabilities in Trump’s January ceasefire; it was Israel who reneged on that like it has reneged on every other ceasefire agreement it has ever signed.

          • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
            311·
            2 days ago

            Pre-1967 borders include most of Jerusalem and the 4 holiest Jewish sites. Imagine if Israel said they would offer peace in exchange for Mecca and Medina.

            • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
              82·
              1 day ago

              Your attempt to derail the conversation because the facts aren’t on your side has been noticed, but I’ll bite.

              There are about a hundred and one different ways one could solve this problem. For example, Israel could have custodianship over the relevant holy sites like Jordan does over the Temple Mount. For another, any kind of agreement could be worked out to let Israeli citizens visit these sites (as long as Palestinians are allowed to visit the Temple Mount). Alternatively, we could decide that this all makes no sense for a hundred different reasons and go for a one-state solution with no borders in historical Palestine. Point being: This is not and has never been a serious hurdle towards peace, only an excuse. In serious peace negotiations in the near future, Israel’s position would be so strong as to make getting such concessions from the Palestinian side trivial. I should point out, though, that it’s far from guaranteed that this will be the case in fifteen or twenty years; at that point Israel would be forced to make concessions that actually hurt.

              • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
                21·
                1 day ago

                You are still defending Hamas. They have never offered or agreed to any plausible peace deal. They have only made demands in order to keep the fighting going.

                Israel has released 100s of prisoners, including violent terrorists who murdered peace activists. That’s dozens of times more individuals than Hamas has released or ever agreed to release.

                Israel has offered safe passage to friendly countries for Hamas leadership to step down and release remaining hostages.

                In the end I believe you are right that Israel will have to make even more painful concessions if they continue down this path. Hamas has demonstrated that they will fight to the last man no matter how many Palestinians have to suffer or die while they hide in their tunnels and continue to torture their hostages.

                • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
                  32·
                  23 hours ago

                  I see you’re desperate to derail the conversation again now that your first attempt has failed. It’s painfully obvious and does your monstrosity of a cause no good, so you should consider stopping. I won’t dignify this with a response since you and everyone else reading this knows exactly what I was going to say, but I’ll just note that in the comment you’re responding to, the word “Hamas” appears exactly zero times.

                  • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    21·
                    22 hours ago

                    Maybe too many people have blocked you or something, so I’m not sure if you just can’t see that Hamas is the entire discussion of this thread from the first comments.

                    It’s no surprise to me that someone would fling accusations rather than responding with anything substantive, although that’s not me. I’ve made the point, and provided widely available and globally relied upon sources. You have replied with name calling and rhetoric, so I am okay with your decision not to respond. Probably better for both of us.

            • mrdown@lemmy.worldEnglish
              102·
              2 days ago

              Internstional law say that all lands stolen by israel in 67 is palestinians. They csn visit thosr sites as forrigner or accept a one state solution

            • noMoreTwat@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              83·
              2 days ago

              Mecca and Medina aren’t in Palestine. It might include “most of Jerusalem” but it’s the border recognized by international laws. Fact don’t care about your feelings

            • fif-t@fedia.io
              52·
              2 days ago

              Imagine a bunch of foreigners coming in, and deciding that the majority of your farmable land should belong to them.

              Oh wait, I don’t have to. That’s how Israel was created.

              I’d prefer pre-1947 borders but pre-1967 is better than nothing.

            • AstaKask@lemmy.cafeEnglish
              21·
              2 days ago

              It’s the same fucking cult anyway, only different sects. They can share. Oh wait, religious people are immature children so they literally can’t.

              • fif-t@fedia.io
                31·
                2 days ago

                If only it were about religion (hint: it’s never been about religion)

                • AstaKask@lemmy.cafeEnglish
                  21·
                  2 days ago

                  Religion is crucial to making people not question authority, to make them ignore what they hear and what they see, to make them feel not responsible for their actions. Submission is incredibly dangerous, and it’s what the whole cult of Yahweh is founded on.

                  • fif-t@fedia.io
                    3·
                    2 days ago

                    Except Zionism was started by secular Jews and Zionists today are mostly Evangelical Christians. Israel and its creation has always been colonial and not religious. Religion is mostly a fig leaf/cover for it.

                    To paraphrase from Ilan Pappe, “Most Zionists don’t believe in God, but they believe God promised them Israel”

          • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
            520·
            3 days ago

            Al-Hayya said Hamas does not regret the Oct. 7 attacks, despite the destruction it has brought down on Gaza and its people. He denied that Hamas militants had targeted civilians during the attacks — despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary — and said the operation succeeded in its goal of bringing the Palestinian issue back to the world’s attention.

            Damn they really don’t give a shit about their own civilians, just fodder for western leftists

            The worst thing for Israel is dead Palestinian children

            The best thing for Hamas is dead Palestinian children

            • mrdown@lemmy.worldEnglish
              102·
              2 days ago

              The worst thing for Israel is dead Palestinian children

              They want all palestinians gone

              • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
                310·
                2 days ago

                no they don’t lol

                there’s 2.2 million of them in a space the size of Manhattan, if they wanted to genocide them they could have done it 1000x over by now

                Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were systematically killed by Hutu militias. While the Rwandan Constitution states that over 1 million people were killed, most scholarly estimates suggest between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsi died, mostly men.[5][6][7] The genocide was marked by extreme violence, with victims often murdered by neighbours, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped

                and they did it mainly with machettes

                that is a genocide

                • fif-t@fedia.io
                  91·
                  2 days ago

                  Genocide isn’t about the number of deaths. It’s about the intent.

                  If you listen to what Israelis and Israeli leaders are saying, and the pattern of actions, it fits the definition of genocide.

                  In previous cases of genocide, explicit statements of intent wasn’t required to call it as such (and we have them this time), as the actions and patterns of behaviour were enough to ascribe intent.

                  In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

                  1 Killing members of the group;

                  2 Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

                  3 Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

                  4 Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

                  5 Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

                  Only one of the list needs to be fulfilled in order to be considered genocide. 1, 2, and 3 have been demonstrated. With intent.

                  Even if we put genocide aside, you cannot deny the ethnic cleansing aspect.

                  • ikt@aussie.zoneEnglish
                    27·
                    2 days ago

                    In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed

                    I don’t care for any legal definition tbh, if anything trying to check boxes (with the icj quoting tweets? how low will we go :\ ) it feels like the word has been completely watered down from meaning I’m going to go door to door, house to house and kill every single one of you, I’m going to cut you into pieces, rape your wife and children then cut them into pieces, I’m going to capture you, put you and everyone you know on trains, torture you, and then gas you until not one of your people are left…to whatever Gaza is…

                    Even if we put genocide aside, you cannot deny the ethnic cleansing aspect.

                    There’s definitely war crimes in there from both sides, Israel is not doing itself any favours taking out an apartment building to take out 1 to 2 hamas members, that’s a bit cold, it’s why I’m surprised the palestinians haven’t risen up and killed every hamas member out there as surely they must recognise hamas are radioactive

                    Hundreds join Gaza’s largest anti-Hamas protest since war began

                    The protests in northern Gaza came a day after Islamic Jihad gunmen launched rockets at Israel, prompting an Israeli decision to evacuate large parts of Beit Lahia, which sparked public anger in the area.

                    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g71lk09npo

                    But nothing really major since then?

                    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Gaza_Strip_anti-Hamas_protests

                    I just wish this shitshow was over so we can go back to focusing on Ukraine :(

                • mrdown@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  51·
                  2 days ago

                  Learn the definition of genocide first instead of embarassing your self. Why netenyahu call the west bank as judea when judea was destroyed thousands of year ago? Why they build settlements in palestinians lands, why they stsrve gazans, why did he compare all gazans to amalek? Why israel destroy all palestinians historical sites? Why does honest israelis ask palestinians to live in egypt?

    • Aussieiuszko@aussie.zoneEnglish
      138·
      3 days ago

      So not only are you racist towards Aboriginal peoples, but you’re also a Zionist?

      It’s like you’re speed running being a terrible person.

      • polysexualstick@lemmy.worldEnglish
        75·
        3 days ago

        Yes, Netanyahu is a far-right extremist and saying he only wants Hamas to surrender at this point is wild.

        But Zionism itself is not the problem here. The problem is fascism. Zionism is only the idea that Israel as a Jewish state should exist. That could very well co-exist with a Palestinian state. That the Israeli government doesn’t want to allow that is because the government is fascist.

        • Aussieiuszko@aussie.zoneEnglish
          62·
          2 days ago

          Zionism is 100% the problem. Zionism is a branch of fascism.

          No decent person should ever promote ethnostates.

          There should be no “Jewish” state, just as there should be no state for any other single culture or religion. That is racism.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
          93·
          3 days ago

          That’s not true. Zionism is the idea that Jews should build a state for them and only them. It’s inherently predicated on ethnically cleansing indigenous people (and oppressing whoever are allowed to remain) to make way for a Jewish and only Jewish society. Here’s the so-called father of Zionism on the topic:

          As to al-Khalidi concerns about the non-Jewish majority population of Palestine, Herzl replied rhetorically: “who would think of sending them away?” and concluded ambiguously that “If he (the Ottoman Sultan) will not accept it, we will search and, believe me, we will find elsewhere what we need.”[c] Rashid Khalidi notes that this sentiment was penned 4 years after Herzl had confided to his diary the idea of spiriting away the population of whatever country was chosen for a future Jewish state to make way for Jews:[49][page needed]

          We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our own country The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.’

          - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl

          The Nakba was not a coincidence. You said that fascism, not Zionism, is the problem, but Zionism is a fascist ideology. Otherwise what do the words “Jewish state” even mean?

        • mrdown@lemmy.worldEnglish
          43·
          2 days ago

          The problem is definitely zionism an ethenic supermasist ideology that can only be compared to the aryan race supermacy. Thst’s why every single israeli prime was a war criminal

    • burgerchurgarr@lemmus.orgEnglish
      44·
      2 days ago

      We want the settler colony to disarm and stop existing, thank you for your attention to this matter.