“This Decision is a Disaster:” Partners for Progressive Israel Condemns Netanyahu Plan for Full Re-Occupation of Gaza Strip

August 8th, 2025 –

Last night, the Israeli security cabinet approved Prime Minister Netanyahu’s plan to completely occupy the Gaza Strip, contrary to the warnings of his own military chief of staff and the outcry of hostage families, the Israeli public, and the world at large.

This decision is a disaster. Israeli military officials have made it clear that this plan to violently re-occupy the Strip will explicitly involve the continued forced transfer of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and we fear this will only intensify the manmade starvation, ethnic cleansing, and other war crimes we are witnessing in the enclave. 

We also stand in solidarity with the families of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, who have asserted that this plan would mean nothing less than a death sentence for their loved ones, abandoned by their government in pursuit of a war of Occupation and devastation. 

As many additional members of the international community, led by France, are preparing to finally recognize a Palestinian state – with a call for the complete disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from future power, a full hostage exchange deal, and international oversight –  we are disturbed that this announcement of plans to re-occupy the Gaza Strip reflects an intention by the Netanyahu administration to prevent the political reconstitution of the Palestinian people, alongside the mass physical destruction of the enclave and its civilians. 

Partners Executive Director Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson said, “Netanyahu and his cabinet have made it clear that the lives of Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages, the desires of the populace they were elected to serve, and Israel’s international standing among the community of nations all matter far less than their personal maintenance of power. The international community must use every tool at our disposal to prevent the implementation of this plan – including governmental sanctions and the end of the sale of offensive weapons to Israel for use in Gaza – for the sake of the future of every Palestinian and Israeli in the region.”