Israelis petition top court to cancel Gaza City occupation

Israeli citizens, including retired military officers, industrialists and lawyers, have filed a petition to the Supreme Court demanding the cancellation of the government's plan to occupy Gaza City.

According to the Hebrew news site Walla, the petition argues that the decision was made against the position of the army and other security agencies, and without examining its "existential and international" consequences.

The petition was driven by members of Israel’s leftist Standing Together movement, which focuses on issues of social justice and equality while opposing the occupation and racist policies against Palestinians.

This movement operates in a society where polls show the majority back Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Gaza. At the same time, larger demonstrations have centred on demanding the release of Israeli captives held by Palestinian factions in Gaza, even if that requires halting the war

"A petition was filed with the Supreme Court (the highest judicial authority) against the decision of the Security Cabinet to occupy Gaza City.” The petition demands “the cancellation of the Cabinet’s adoption of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to seize control of Gaza City," Walla reported.

The petitioners wrote that the move was "taken against the stance of the Israeli army and other security bodies, and without proper study by the Cabinet of the existential and international implications of such a move".

They added: “Since the petitioners recognize the limited legal authority of this honourable court to intervene in political and military decisions of the executive branch, the court must at least order the respondent to publicly release the reasons behind this decision.”

According to the petition, "the Israeli army, under Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, strongly opposed the decision, warning that the planned occupation would endanger the lives of the captives, exhaust regular and reserve forces, and could even lead to the collapse of the reserve system, posing a danger to national security. Nevertheless, the Cabinet rejected his position".

The petitioners also argued that the decision to occupy Gaza "was taken by a minority government, which should have acted with extreme caution on such fateful matters, especially in light of the criminal indictment against the Prime Minister".

They said Netanyahu’s considerations "may not be objective, but rather political and personal".

Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Monday evening, citing Israeli ministers, that Chief of Staff Zamir "did everything he could to argue against the plan, but made clear several times that he would implement it. Over the past month, in every forum, he tried to push his position".

The Security Cabinet met on Sunday to discuss plans for occupying the city, codenamed 'Gideon's Chariots 2', following on from the first operation, carried out by the Israeli army in Gaza between 16 May and 6 August.

On 21 August, the Cabinet approved the army’s plans to occupy Gaza City, previously endorsed by Defence Minister Israel Katz. Channel 12 later revealed an internal classified army document admitting that “Chariots of Gideon” had failed to achieve its declared objectives - chiefly defeating Hamas and recovering the captives.

The newspaper Maariv reported that the Israeli army is beginning on Tuesday the mobilisation of around 60,000 reservists in preparation for the occupation of Gaza City.

The reservists will undergo three to four days of training and organisation, with some units assigned to replace regular troops in northern defence and combat zones. Some reserve brigades are expected to fight inside Gaza, while others will be deployed to reinforce the West Bank.

Despite this, Haaretz said senior Israeli security officials warned during Sunday’s Cabinet meeting that occupying Gaza City would not bring a decisive victory over Hamas.

The paper reported that the meeting "focused, unusually, on the strategic rather than tactical aspects of the next stage of the war on Gaza".