Category World News

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to seize control of Gaza City, triggering growing international condemnation, with world leaders warning of dire humanitarian consequences.

The plan to take over Gaza’s largest city was announced on Friday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intended to take military control of the entire Gaza Strip.

Israel’s plan to expand its assault on Gaza is expected to worsen the humanitarian devastation in the besieged enclave, triggering a wave of mass displacement amid a hunger crisis.

Here is how the world is reacting to the Israeli plan:

UN rights chief

“The Israeli Government’s plan for a complete military takeover of the occupied Gaza Strip must be immediately halted,” the UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement on Friday.

“It runs contrary to the ruling of the International Court of Justice that Israel must bring its occupation to an end as soon as possible, to the realisation of the agreed two-State solution and to the right of Palestinians to self-determination,” Turk added.

Palestinian presidency

The Palestinian presidency condemned Netanyahu’s announcement that Israel intends to seize full control of the Gaza Strip.

“This is a complete crime,” the Presidency said, describing it as a continuation of “genocide, systematic killing, starvation and siege,” in report carried the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

It warned that Israel’s actions would lead to an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”

Hamas

Hamas warned that the Israeli government’s decision to escalate the war would amount to “sacrificing” the captives being held in Gaza.

“The decision to occupy Gaza confirms that the criminal Netanyahu and his Nazi government do not care about the fate of their captives,” the group said in a statement. “They understand that expanding the aggression means sacrificing them.”

Turkish foreign ministry

Turkiye said the decision to take control of Gaza City aimed to forcibly displace Palestinians and called for international leaders to prevent the plan from being carried out.

“We call on the international community to fulfil its responsibilities to prevent the implementation of this decision, which aims to forcibly displace Palestinians from their own land,” Turkiye’s foreign ministry said, according to Reuters.

British prime minister

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Israel’s decision to step up military operations in Gaza “wrong” and called for restraint.

“The Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza is wrong, and we urge it to reconsider immediately,” he said.

“This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed.”

China’s foreign ministry

China expressed “serious concerns” over Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City and urged it to “immediately cease its dangerous actions”.

“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people and is an inseparable part of Palestinian territory,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP in a message.

“The correct way to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and to secure the release of hostages is an immediate ceasefire,” they added.

German chancellor

Chanceller Friedrich Merz said Germany will not authorise any exports to Israel of military equipment that could be used in Gaza “until further notice”.

“The even harsher military action by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, approved by the Israeli Cabinet last night, makes it increasingly difficult for the German government to see how these goals will be achieved,” he said.

“Under these circumstances, the German government will not authorise any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice.”

Sweden foreign minister

Sweden’s foreign minister said the Israeli government’s decision to escalate the assault on Gaza would make it harder to reach a truce.

“I view with great concern the decision that the Israeli government has made,” Maria Malmer Stenergard told Swedish broadcaster SVT on Friday. “We need a ceasefire and this decision risks taking the development in the opposite direction.”

“I have previously reiterated that any attempt to annex, change or reduce the territory of Gaza would violate international law,” she said.

Australian foreign minister

Responding to Netanyahu’s remarks that Israel’s military would take control of the entire Gaza Strip, Canberra warned that the expansion would deepen the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

“Permanent forced displacement is a violation of international law,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, as she renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire.

“With international partners, Australia maintains our call for a ceasefire, the return of hostages and aid to flow unimpeded,” she said.

Wong also reiterated Australia’s growing support for Palestinian statehood, stating it was a matter of “when, not if”.

Finland’s foreign minister

Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen expressed deep concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, warning of a looming famine.

“We hope for an immediate Gaza ceasefire and the immediate release of Israeli hostages,” Valtonen said, according to Reuters.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad

The Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad said Israel’s plans to expand its assault on Gaza were “a new chapter in the war of extermination.”

In a statement, the group said: “The Zionist entity’s government is preparing to escalate its massacres in Gaza,” adding that “we hold Arab governments and the West responsible for curbing this escalation.”

It accused Netanyahu of pushing for “forced displacement,” saying his “escalation, fully supported by the Trump administration, aims to occupy the Gaza Strip.”

Netherlands foreign minister

The Netherlands’ foreign minister criticised Israel’s plan to expand its military campaign in Gaza, calling it “a wrong move”.

“The plan of the Netanyahu government to intensify Israeli operations in Gaza is a wrong move,” Caspar Veldkamp wrote on X. “The (Gaza) humanitarian situation is catastrophic and demands immediate improvement. This decision in no way contributes to this and will also not help to get the hostages home.”

Saudi foreign ministry

Riyadh condemned any Israeli move to take control of Gaza, according to a foreign ministry statement.

The kingdom “categorically denounces Israeli occupation authorities’ persistence in committing crimes of starvation, brutal practices, and ethnic cleansing against the brotherly Palestinian people,” it said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

Ursula von der Leyen, the head of EU’s executive branch, said Israel must reconsider its plan to take control of Gaza City.

“The Israeli government’s decision to further extend its military operation in Gaza must be reconsidered,” she wrote on X.

Danish foreign minister

Israel’s decision to intensify its military operation in Gaza is wrong and should immediately be reversed, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told Denmark’s TV2.

Jordanian foreign ministry

The foreign ministry in Amman “condemned, in the strongest terms, the plan” approved by Israel that “aims to entrench its occupation of the Gaza Strip and expand full military control over it”.

The statement also accused Israel of committing “grave violations of international law and international humanitarian law”, and undermining “the two-state solution and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state on the lines of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.

Spanish foreign minister

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said: “We firmly condemn the decision of the Israeli government to escalate the military occupation of Gaza. It will only cause more destruction and suffering.”

He added that “a permanent ceasefire, the immediate and massive entry of humanitarian aid, and the release of all hostages are urgently needed.”

Belgium’s foreign ministry

Belgian foreign minister summoned the Israeli ambassador citing the announced plan to occupy Gaza City and take military control of Gaza.

The ministry said Belgium wanted to “express (its) total disapproval of this decision, but also of the continued colonization … and the desire to annex the West Bank,” adding that it will “vigorously advocate” for a reversal of this decision.

“Following the official confirmation by the Israeli government of its intention to encircle and then occupy Gaza City and take military control of the entire Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot has decided to summon the Israeli Ambassador,” it said.

Israel’s opposition leader

Opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned the decision to seize Gaza City.

“This is a disaster which will lead to many more disasters,” he posted on X, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of caving to pressure from far-right ministers. He said the move ignored military advice and the exhaustion of troops.

Riga, Latvia – Thick black smoke billowed across Skonto Stadium as fans of the Israeli football team, Beitar Jerusalem, defied UEFA rules, setting off several rounds of pyrotechnics.

With only one minute played of the UEFA Conference League qualifier match against Riga FC, Latvian fans looked bewildered as a Beitar fan, wearing a black balaclava, nonchalantly threw a succession of fireworks around the stand, causing a small fire and scorching parts of the away stand.

A banner displaying the name of Beitar supporters’ fan club, “La Familia”, sat draped across the stands. The notoriously racist fan club, which is known for its anti-Arab chants and violent behaviour, has in the past come up against the police in Israel.

In 2016, an undercover police operation resulted in the arrest of 56 fans on suspicion of smuggling weapons and violence.

On Thursday, one Beitar fan held up an Israeli flag in the home stand, garnering cheers from other Beitar fans, but angry stewards ushered them down the steps and into the away stand.

The team, which in its 89-year history has never signed an Arab player, boasts right-wing Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir among its supporters. It is currently playing its home matches in Romania due to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and travelled to Latvia just weeks after fans were filmed chanting “Death to Arabs” while marching through the streets of Bucharest, where their team beat Sutjeska of Montenegro 5-2.

After the Riga game on Thursday, the raucous fans were held inside the stadium perimeter for about half an hour. A solitary home fan shouted “free Palestine” towards the direction of the Beitar fans gathered behind the gates. “F**k Palestine”, came the response.

The game had ended 3-0 to Riga FC, and afterwards, Beitar fans let out their frustration by setting off flares in heavy traffic. Amid the chaos, a number were herded off to police vans by Latvian police.

‘Double standards’

The chaotic, alcohol-fuelled behaviour displayed by Beitar fans may not be new to European football, but it comes amid the backdrop of Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians and led to calls from rights groups for Israeli teams to be banned from European football competitions.

The world football governing body, FIFA, has repeatedly delayed its review of a Palestinian bid to have Israel suspended from the international arena over its war on Gaza.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it took FIFA only a matter of days to suspend Russian teams from all international football competitions.

That highlights the “double standards” shown towards Palestinian lives, Dima Said, spokesperson for the Palestine Football Association and former captain of Palestine women’s national football team, told Al Jazeera.

She said seeing Israeli football fans being allowed to shout anti-Palestinian chants without punishment around Europe is “as a Palestinian athlete … one of the hardest things to watch”.

“For me to see that those people who publicly support genocide, who publicly advocate for children to be killed, is something that’s very harmful for me as a human being, first, but secondly, as a Palestinian, it should not be allowed,” she said.

She also pointed to the fact that more than 200 Palestinian footballers have been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began.

On Wednesday, the former Palestinian national football team player, Suleiman al-Obeid, was killed in an Israeli attack on aid seekers in Gaza.

Last November, Israeli football fans clashed with apparent pro-Palestinian protesters before and after a Europa League football match between their team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Dutch team AFC Ajax in Amsterdam.

Videos shared on social media at the time showed Israeli fans chanting racist, anti-Arab songs, vandalising a taxi and burning a Palestinian flag.

After the game, when fights broke out, Dutch police arrested people who had retaliated against the Israeli fans, as world leaders made accusations of anti-Semitism.

It was an incident that Thomas Ross Griffin, a sports studies scholar and associate professor of postcolonial literature at Qatar University, says demonstrates the impunity with which Israeli fans can act.

“If these were English fans rampaging through the streets, destroying taxis, breaking into property, smashing windows, beating private citizens … there will be condemnation all over Europe, but you attach these fans to an Israeli sporting entity, and suddenly … they’re the victims,” he said.

Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Artem* is determined to never join Ukraine’s armed forces.

“If I ever fight, I won’t fight for Ukraine”, the 29-year-old from the westernmost Zakarpattia region told Al Jazeera.

A “conscription patrol” of three police and two military officers rounded him up in late June as he was leaving the Sunday mass at a cathedral in Uzhhorod, the regional capital.

Artem had paperwork proving that he was the only caretaker of his disabled, ailing 66-year-old mother and therefore could not be drafted.

But the patrol detained and brought him to a conscription office, where two officers took Artem to a separate room. He claimed they beat him and tried to force him to “volunteer” for military service.

When he refused, he said they tied and blindfolded him and four more reluctant detainees and took them to a forest outside Uzhhorod.

One of the officers ordered them at gunpoint to run to what turned out to be a fence on the Slovakian border, Artem claimed.

Another officer videotaped the men’s “attempt to illegally cross the border”, which is punishable by up to four years in jail, and said they could “negotiate their release fee”, Artem claimed.

He said that his family paid $2, 000 for his release and another $15, 000 for a fake permit to leave Ukraine as men of fighting age, 25 to 60, are not allowed to travel abroad.

Artem, who spoke via a messaging app from an Eastern European nation, asked to withhold his real name, personal details and the location of the conscription office he claims to have been beaten in.

A deepening crisis

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify all of the details of Artem’s story, but some of his allegations corroborate with other cases of conscription-related coercion and corruption in Ukraine amid a dire shortage of front-line troops in the fight against Russia.

Between January and June, the Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman’s office received more than 2, 000 complaints about the use of force by conscription patrols that consist of military and police officers.

In one case, patrol officers hit a bicyclist in the central Rivne region with their car in January after he refused to pull over. They beat and tear-gassed him to deliver him to the conscription office and “illegally mobilise”, investigators said. Ultimately, the patrolling officers volunteered to go to the front line to avoid assault charges, they said.

On August 1, police in the central city of Vinnytsia used tear gas to disperse a crowd that tried to storm a conscription office and release some 100 men that they claimed had been detained illegally.

Meanwhile, a privileged few abuse their position to dodge the draft.

In October 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the prosecutor general after several public prosecutors obtained fake disability papers that also entitled them to sizeable “pensions”.

In January, Oleh Druz – the chief psychiatrist for Ukraine’s armed forces, who could declare any conscript unfit for service – was arrested. He now faces up to 10 years in jail for “illegal enrichment”.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, Druz reportedly bought several luxurious apartments, two plots of land and several BMW cars – and kept $152, 000 and 34, 000 euros ($40, 000) in cash at home.

For more than two years, conscription patrols have been combing public places, subway stations, nightclubs and even crashing wedding parties in search of men of fighting age – 25 to 60, more than a dozen witnesses from all over Ukraine told Al Jazeera.

They tour regions outside their official jurisdiction. “Fake patrols” of burly uniformed men then blackmail those they catch. A release fee is $400 or more, but those who refuse to pay up are handed over to real conscription offices, the witnesses say.

Several conscription officers are ex-servicemen who often suffer from PTSD, despise draft dodgers and have no qualms about humiliating, abusing and beating them, they say.

Hundreds of thousands of men are understood to be in hiding, causing a dire shortage in the workforce. Across the country, there are far fewer male construction workers, farmhands, cooks and taxi drivers.

Men whose military papers are in order prefer to move around with a witness who can, if needed, videotape an encounter with a conscription patrol.

“I drive around with my mom because there are too many checkpoints anywhere I go”, Ferentz, an ethnic Hungarian taxi driver in Uzhhorod, told Al Jazeera as his mother smiled from the front seat of his old Skoda.

Meanwhile, a societal division is growing.

Current or former Ukrainian servicemen and their families are increasingly indignant about how draft dodgers justify their reluctance to enlist.

“I broke up with many female friends who defend their husbands ‘ or boyfriends ‘ right not to fight”, Hanna Kovaleva, whose husband Albert volunteered in 2022, told Al Jazeera. “This]mindset] is disgusting – ‘ let someone else die while I’m hiding behind my wife’s skirt. ‘”

Preemptive emigration

Before he turns 17, Bogdan* is leaving Ukraine – but not in search of better living conditions.

He lives in central Kyiv in a three-bedroom apartment with his parents, goes to a private school and spends weekends in a spacious country house.

But his parents do not want him to be conscripted.

Even though it could only happen only when Bogdan turns 25, they say they are not taking ay risks.

“With this chaos on the front line, you don’t just want your kid to die because of his officer’s mistake”, his father Dmitry* told Al Jazeera.

On September 1, Bogdan will start school in Prague, where his aunt lives.

Crushed and heartbroken – he just started dating a classmate – he says he has no choice.

“I know I sound very unpatriotic, but I don’t want to end up rotting in a ditch”, he told Al Jazeera.

In January, United States President Donald Trump’s administration urged Kyiv to lower the draft age from 25 to 18 – reiterating the previous administration’s request.

As the average age of a Ukrainian serviceman has reached 45 from 42 three years ago, more and more Ukrainians with military backgrounds agree with the request.

Alternatively, men aged 18 and older could serve in a “labour army” that manufactures drones and other war-related items, according to Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, ex-deputy head of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

He said that mobilisation should involve all men of fighting age without exceptions – while Ukraine’s economy should be “reformatted” to primarily serve the army’s needs.

France’s most devastating wildfire in decades remains active despite being brought under control, officials announced, as firefighting efforts continue with hundreds of personnel.

The massive blaze in Aude has scorched more than 17, 000 hectares (42, 000 acres) – an area larger than Paris – killing one person, injuring another 13 and destroying numerous homes.

Approximately 2, 000 firefighters remain deployed to combat the flames, which were declared under control on Thursday night.

“The fire will not be declared extinguished for several days”, said Christian Pouget, Aude’s prefect. “There is still a lot of work to be done”.

Officials have restricted access to the devastated forests until at least Sunday due to hazardous conditions, including fallen power lines and other dangers.

Pouget confirmed that roughly 2, 000 evacuees still await clearance to return home, with hundreds sheltering in school gymnasiums and community centres throughout the region.

This wildfire is the largest in France’s Mediterranean region in at least 50 years, according to government monitoring agencies. The southern area is particularly susceptible to such fires.

At its peak, the blaze consumed about 1, 000 hectares (2, 500 acres) per hour, Narbonne authorities reported. Shifting strong winds over two days made the fire’s behaviour unpredictable.

A 65-year-old woman who refused evacuation orders was found dead in her burned home, while 13 others were injured, including 11 firefighters.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, visiting the affected area on Wednesday, called the wildfire a “catastrophe on an unprecedented scale”.

“What is happening today is linked to global warming and linked to drought”, Bayrou said.

Environment Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher wrote in a post on X that this was France’s largest fire since 1949. The country has experienced approximately 9, 000 wildfires this summer, primarily near the Mediterranean coast.

Aude has seen increasing burn areas in recent years, exacerbated by reduced rainfall and vineyard removals that previously helped slow fire progression.

In Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, the hardest-hit village, thick smoke continued rising on Thursday from pine-covered hills overlooking vineyards where dry grass still burned.

With Europe facing new August heatwaves, many regions remain on wildfire alert. Portugal extended emergency measures on Thursday due to heightened fire risks.

Near Spain’s Tarifa, fire crews secured areas around tourist accommodation after controlling a major blaze that destroyed hundreds of hectares.