Red Cross and UN warn of catastrophe if Israel moves to take Gaza City

The International Red Cross and the UN have warned of an impending catastrophe in the Gaza Strip if Israel launches an offensive to take over Gaza City, as the Israeli military warned medical and aid groups in the Palestinian territory to prepare for imminent forced displacement.

- Peter Beaumont

As a concerted campaign of international opposition to Israel's defiance of ceasefire calls and its approval of a huge new illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank gathered pace, the UK summoned Israel's ambassador and joined 20 other countries in condemning the settlement plan as a "violation of international law".

The Gaza health ministry yesterday rejected the call by the Israeli military to displace personnel in the north in advance of a military offensive to seize the area, saying it would "deprive more than one million people of their right to medical treatment and expose the lives of residents, patients and the wounded to imminent danger".

Yesterday evening, Benjamin Netanyahu announced during a visit to Israeli soldiers in the Gaza division that he had approved plans for the takeover of Gaza City and ordered officials to begin immediate negotiations over the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

"We are in the decision-making stage," the prime minister said. "I have come to the Gaza division today to approve the plans that the IDF presented to me... for the takeover of Gaza City and the defeat of Hamas...