Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City slammed at UN Security Council; 52 killed in attacks

Aug 11, 2025 News

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(AL-JAZEERA) Israeli attacks across the besieged Gaza Strip continue, killing at least 52 Palestinians, as the death toll from Israeli-induced starvation since the war began rises to 217, including 100 children.

Attacks mount as the United Nations Security Council held an emergency session as condemnation grows over Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City and forcibly displace nearly a million Palestinians.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has condemned what it called “Israeli incitement” against the Palestinian people’s right to establish an independent state.

In a statement posted on X, the ministry said it “condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli incitement calls against the opportunity to establish the Palestinian state on the ground and its tangible embodiment in the institutions of the Palestinian National Authority as the nucleus of the Palestinian state”.

It described such calls as “an extension of the crimes of genocide, displacement, annexation, and attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause and our people’s rights”.

The ministry urged all countries and the wider international community to “assume their political, legal, and moral responsibilities towards what the Palestinian people are subjected to”.

The statement comes on a day when an Israeli far-right minister called for the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority.

“I will appeal to the Prime Minister with a request to bring immediate operative measures to the next cabinet meeting to dismantle the Palestinian Authority,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a post on X.

“This must be the response to the terrorist Abu Mazen’s [PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s] fantasies of a ‘Palestinian state’ – crushing the terror authority he heads.”

By offering nothing except continual massacre for the Palestinians, and attempting to subjugate the surrounding areas to its will, Israel finds itself “in a predicament of its own making”, argues former Israeli adviser Daniel Levy.

Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, spoke on Al Jazeera’s Bottom Line and said that Israel has put Arab leaders in a bind, as regional disgust grows towards Israel for its war crimes in Gaza.

And while Western governments and cultural institutions have been carrying water for Israel for decades, argues Levy, some have begun “acknowledging things they worked hard not to acknowledge for an awfully long time.”

Fu Cong, the permanent representative of China at the UN, has just spoken at the emergency Security Council session.

In his speech, he said China firmly opposes any attempt by Israel to “occupy” Gaza.

“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people. It is an integral part of the Palestinian territory. Any action that seeks to alter its demographic and territorial structure must be met with utmost rejection and resistance,” he said.

“The illusion of military supremacy must be abandoned. … An immediate ceasefire is the only right way to save lives and secure the release of hostages. Continually escalated military offensives in Gaza will only lead to more killings and deaths,” Fu stated.

“The Israeli government needs to listen to the case of both [the] international community and its people, immediately stop escalating tensions and put an end to its military operations in Gaza,” he said.

Cong slammed as “unacceptable” the “weaponisation” of humanitarian aid and the “collective punishment” of Palestinians in Gaza. “Attacking civilians and humanitarian workers as they search for supplies is equally unacceptable,” Fu said.

“It is crucial to reinvigorate the prospect of the two-state solution, … the only viable path to resolving the Palestinian question and achieving peaceful coexistence,” he concluded.

The situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, placing Palestinians in peril and further endangering the lives of the captives, Miroslav Jenca, the UN assistant secretary-general for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, has told the UN Security Council.

The latest plans for Gaza by the government of Israel risk “igniting another horrific chapter in this conflict, with potential consequences beyond Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory”, he said in his opening remarks.

Jenca pointed out that details are not finalised yet, but the government foresees the displacement of all civilians from Gaza City by October 7, 2025, affecting some 800,000 people, many of them previously displaced. The Israeli army would then surround the city for three months, followed by an additional two months to seize control of central Gaza’s camps.

“We are already witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe of unimaginable scale in Gaza,” he said.

“If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings and destruction, compounding the unbearable suffering of the population.”

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• Council, Gaza, Gaza Strip, Palestinian, United Nations

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