Israeli security cabinet expected to approve Gaza takeover plan

[Twiglets1]

Sky News report that Israel is expected to approve Benjamin Netanyahu's plan for a takeover of Gaza when the security cabinet meets later today.

According to the Times of Israel, the full cabinet is due to convene at 6pm local time, 4pm in the UK.

Israeli media are reporting that the plan could potentially span over five months, and it is likely to be aimed at destroying Hamas and pressuring it to free remaining hostages.

While some ministers have been critical of the plan, reports suggest Netanyahu is likely to secure a majority of support.

https://news.sky.com/story/gaza-latest-hostages-famine-aid-hamas-idf-war-palestine-state-live-13398805

I'm asking you, as the person making the accusation. Was he asleep where he can be active in his role as a combatant?

If the answer is no, then what you are claiming is a lawful killing under the rules of war, is in fact an assassination, which is unlawful under the rules of war. In ethics of war scholarship, this is broadly known as the Naked Soldier problem, and the answer to that question tells us about where and when liability ends.

Liability ends at being hors de combats, unless you can demonstrate that they were actively able to fulfil their role at the time of killing, or that they were active in their role in a sense in which they have a "settled design", then the killing is unlawful.

I can see why Israel would want them to be with the IDF - it massively reduces the risk of them being killed by either side and allows Israel to continue to carry out widespread bombing without fear of international journalists being collateral damage.

My issue with the IDF’s involvement is reviewing the footage. They control where they go so can ensure it’s not a compromising area militarily speaking. So why the extra level of checks? That’s the bit that feels concerning to me.

What isn't true, that foreign journalists would be at threat from Hamas if they thought they might report anything negative about them? Maybe read this report by the CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) about what they do to their own journalists who speak out:

Gaza journalists speak out about Hamas intimidation, threats, assaults

When Gazan journalist Tawfiq Abu Jarad received a phone call from a Hamas security agent warning him not to cover a protest, he readily complied, having been assaulted by Hamas-affiliated forces once before. He only secured his freedom with a promise to stop reporting.

Another journalist told The Washington Post they feared covering highly unusual demonstrations in March 2025 would lead Hamas to accuse them of spying for Israel. A third said Hamas’ internal security agents sometimes followed journalists as they reported. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In separate incidents this year, two Gaza-based journalists told CPJ that they were intimidated by Hamas security agents who blocked them from reporting in certain areas. The journalists did not consent to CPJ going public about their experiences for fear of retaliation. To them, the priority was to be able to continue reporting from the field.

More recently, a TV crew told CPJ they were assaulted by Hamas security forces while trying to film. But, again, the journalists did not want CPJ to publicize the incident as it was later resolved between the powerful clans that wield influence over most of Gaza’s population.

A correspondent for Fatah-affiliated Awda TV, Abu Aoun told CPJ that he was beaten by Hamas’ Internal Security Force in 2024 while interviewing a woman near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

“During the interview, the woman insulted Hamas and some of its leaders. The officers immediately took me to an unknown location and beat me,” said Abu Aoun, 26, adding that they searched his cell phone and told him to stop working in the vicinity of the hospital.

cpj.org/2025/05/gaza-journalists-speak-out-about-hamas-intimidation-threats-assaults/

I knew that was coming. You can always predict the selective parts, to take from a post. Difference is, Hamas deliberately kill.

I don't know if the IDF will be reviewing the footage or not - I'm not sure the foreign journalists are in Gaza yet. But even if they do (which I wouldn't agree with personally) it could be argued that they are only levelling the propaganda playing field by checking the content. Because it's not like Hamas allow anything negative to come out about their actions in Gaza in Al Jazeera for example, is it?

Also, the Israel government/IDF won't be allowed to control what the foreign journalists report when they get back to the UK, Germany, France wherever. Because unlike local journalists, they will be leaving Gaza so not afraid to say negative things about the IDF or Hamas once they are home.

You do not believe that the IDF deliberately kills?

You knew it was coming because it is an undeniable fact. Italy's defence minister said today that 'Israel has lost it's humanity in Gaza'

I vehemently agree with him.

I think it’s always been a condition for foreign journalists but as you say, we’ll have to see what the deal is this time. And whilst I understand wanting to level the playing field, I’d quite like to just see/hear the truth and not some edited/redacted version! But, as always, we’ll have to wait years for that to come out. At least I’ll have some interesting books to keep me busy when I retire.

And you’re right, once they are home they can say what they want so here’s hoping to more ‘as close to the truth as possible” news. I’m sure it’ll still be disregarded as MSM propaganda by some but to me it feels closer to reality than X commentary.

Are you advocating for foreign journalists to go wandering around Gaza taking photos of anything they want and speaking to local Gazans? That seems plain daft in a common sense way, no matter who calls for it.

Did you even read the report I posted about what Hamas do to their own journalists who do things they don't like?

Foreign journalists will have nothing to fear from the IDF because they are not Hamas supporters and they will be accompanied by IDF soldiers.

Local journalists who are suspected of being Hamas members obviously do have a lot to fear from the IDF.

All militaries deliberately kill. IDF would be useless if they had a ‘no kill’ policy. If you’re referring to deliberately killing innocent people, the IDF make calls knowing that both Hamas and innocent people will be killed.

And again, what people have an issue with is the number of innocent people killed in the pursuit of Hamas. Take the journalists, for example, even if we agree that one was Hamas affiliated (I’m still not sure), what about the other 5 people killed? Is one Hamas life worth 5 innocent people?

I would like to see & hear the truth too.

I think the best chance we have of getting that is from these foreign journalists once they return home. At the moment we are getting a very one sided view in my opinion and I genuinely want to see lots of foreign journalists going into Gaza and will be very interested in what they have to say afterwards. Even if it isn't what I want them to say (because I wouldn't defend the IDF if I considered them an exceptionally immoral army). I don't - but neither do I consider them blameless or see why they have to be the most moral army in the world or any of that crap.

Just because it seems plain daft to you it doesn't mean it is.

Don't you think the hundreds of journalists who have petitioned for unfettered access and have been working in war zones for years, know better than you?

I think that it is safe to say that any journalist who reports on what the IDF is doing in Gaza is only as safe from the IDF as they are far away from it.

If what you say is true, re local journalists and their being suspected of being Hamas members as the reason for their being killed, then why does Israel target journalists in the West Bank? Both since and prior to Oct. 7th?

Israel's interest is in the control of information. Negationism is a crucial stage in the prosecution of genocide (and crimes against humanity more broadly). Obviously, no military has any interest in impartial documentation of what they do: no military's hands are clean enough to allow it. But Israel is setting itself apart in the scope of their embargo on international journalism. There is no possible argument that can be made that what Israel is doing is normal, not under any pretext of journalist safety, nor of safeguarding against propaganda.

Moreover, it speaks to the utter domination being exercised by Israel over Gaza, and which it has exercised to an extraordinary degree for 18 years, and in a different guise as the belligerent occupation since 1967. Israel is only able to do what it is doing vis international reporting because of its near two decades' long siege of the Gaza Strip.

I'm thinking exclusively about how safe it will be for them. It's entirely possible that they are committed to journalistic integrity and are prepared to enter Gaza with no IDF supervision or protection, even knowing that it is a chaotic war zone. So it's not really a case of me knowing better than them. They know the risks as well or better than I do. It's just they willing to take the risks in the interests of journalism, whereas I'm focussing on it being unwise from the point of view of their personal safety.

I know journalists have done it in other dangerous places but also, many journalists have died doing it. Gaza is an extremely dangerous place and I think foreign journalists would have a target on their back.

I don't believe the IDF are squeaky clean. Every army has rogue soldiers. I believe that faction may also have been trigger happy. What I will never believe is a group of terrorists that hunt down and slaughter fellow human goings, I don't trust the UN and its different branches, Amnesty International dodgy as fuck. I certainly don't believe the Hamas Ministry of phantom numbers. If I'm coming down on one side, it's standing by Israel. Nobody will be making me ashamed of that.

You forgot to add doctors both those working and those who have volunteered in Gaza and NGO’s with a presence on the ground to your do not believe list.

Almost all of Israel’s allies have made statements/taken some action due to the humanitarian situation.

Does it not raise any questions in your head that all that Israel has taken a wrong turn here? Even for the sake of its own safety and international standing.

What do you think is more likely,

a) that the overwhelming majority of humanitarian organisations (Human Rights Watch, Unicef, Oxfam, MSF, B'tselem, Lemkin Institute for the Prevention of Genocide, to name just a few of the over 250 NGOs and humanitarian orgs. who have spoken out to condemn and document Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity), the consensus within genocide research scholarship, the opinions and reports of multiple internationally recognised and appointed legal experts, as well as the frankly incredible body of testimony from international aid workers and medical personnel who have (unlike international journalists) been in Gaza since Oct. 2023, that all of this these are either working in conspiracy to act against the state of Israel or are collectively so mistaken or fooled by Hamas that they are all getting it wrong,

or, b) that you have been duped by a incredibly potent propaganda machine

Those are the only two options here

Yes, same.

I've been standing with Israel since 7/10 but that doesn't mean I think their army are squeaky clean, I assume they are not and there has been evidence that they are not.

Nevertheless - look at who they are fighting, look at Hamas goals and actions. Who wouldn't want to destroy a terrorist group like that as your neighbours.

Israel goals make sense to me re disarming Hamas, returning all hostages, demilitarising the Gaza Strip, taking security control of the territory, and establishing an alternative civil administration.

Whether thats true or not is nor here or there. You think it would be daft but so what if you do? These journalists many of whom know the risks and have previously reported from active war zones have repeatedly petitioned Israel for access. They are willing to take the risks and are more aware of them than you are.

The way to destroy Hamas is actually very clear, and has been obvious since their foundation in 1987: Hamas is a symptom of Israeli occupation and the subjugation of Palestinians.

They exist only because of those things. The way to destroy Hamas is to dismantle the occupation and give equal human rights to all of the people of the land, be they Palestinian or Israeli. Netanyahu's war of destruction has not succeeded in destroying Hamas. There is little more that this method of destruction can achieve in that regard.

This has not worked.

Is it not time to try the other way? The way which is also required by the dictates of morality?

My opinion is neither here nor there but that could be said of all of our opinions on here. We're all just debating things and giving opinions. But as we're going round in circles, I will take a break for now.

I'm not even bothering to read the pile on posts. I would rather give the benefit of the doubt to a country defending itself against terrorism, than sick terrorists, whose interests and support are far more reaching than some could even imagine - or believe.

Even when the method to defend against terrorism is a war crime and a crime against humanity?

It seems so. According to the Israeli government and their supporters, the means justifies the end.

October 7th can never be justified, but October 7th can justify anything.

Palestine generally, and Israel's conduct in Gaza since 2023 specifically, is the most articulate demonstration of the unequal application of IHL and the unequal accountability under the international rules based order: there are countries who are protected by the rules, but not bound by them, and there are countries who are bound by the rules, but not protected by them.