Germany and Britain joined a chorus of international voices on Friday condemning Israel’s newly announced plan to occupy the Gaza Strip, with Berlin moving to halt weapons sales that could be used in the territory.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government would no longer authorize any military exports capable of being deployed in Gaza, following the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of a strategy that would see its forces take control of the entire enclave.
“The new military push agreed by the Israeli security cabinet makes it increasingly unclear how these goals are to be achieved,” said Merz. “The German Government will, until further notice, authorise no military equipment exports that can be used in the Gaza Strip.”
In London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the Israeli decision “wrong” and urged it to be reconsidered immediately. “A diplomatic solution is possible, but both parties must step away from the path of destruction,” he said.
The plan, announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office early Friday, would begin with the Israel Defense Forces seizing Gaza City. It outlines five objectives: the return of all hostages held in Gaza, the dismantling of Hamas, the strip’s demilitarization, and full Israeli security control, alongside the installation of an alternative governing authority — one neither led by Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank.
“A decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the Security Cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said that Israel’s plan must be halted “immediately,” saying that 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.”
The plan would lead to more “massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction and atrocity crimes,” Türk warned in a press release Friday.
Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said that he would summon the Israel ambassador in Brussels to discuss the security cabinet’s decision.
Turkey’s foreign ministry described Israel’s latest plan on Gaza as a “new phase of its expansionist and genocidal policy in the region,” adding that it “seeks to render Gaza uninhabitable,” in a statement on Friday.
Netanyahu’s military expansion plans were reported earlier this week, with officials close to the Prime Minister quoted as saying: “The die is cast. We are going for the complete conquest of the Strip—and the defeat of Hamas.”
The proposal had drawn protests from Israeli families of hostages. On Thursday, family members sailed out on boats towards Gaza calling for the government to bring their loved ones home.
Vicki Cohen, the mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, called Netanyahu’s plan a “death sentence” for her son and other hostages still alive in Gaza during a protest in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
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