ISRAEL’S reported plan to occupy the entirety of Gaza would be “catastrophic,” a top UN official has warned, as leaks from the Israeli government suggest such a plan likely to go ahead.

Israeli media reported this week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning on ordering the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) — which already control three-quarters of Gaza following their 22-month bombardment of the strip — to seize the rest of it.

UN assistant secretary-general Miroslav Jenca said these reports, if true, are “deeply alarming.”

Speaking at a security council meeting in New York after the Star went to press on Tuesday night, Mr Jenca said the plans “would risk catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.”

International law is clear, he said. “Gaza is and must remain an integral part of a future Palestinian state.

“As declared by the International Court of Justice … the state of Israel is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory — Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem — as rapidly as possible.”

The only path to ending the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, he said, is a full and permanent ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and an end to Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“While we welcome the discernable shift in the narrative from officials, politicians and the media in warning of and reporting about the catastrophic consequences of Netanyahu’s plans for full occupation,” Stop the War convener Lindsey German told the Morning Star today, “the fact is that our movement has been saying this and predicting this for the past 21 months.

“That’s why we will be on the streets of London again on Saturday, demanding Keir Starmer, David Lammy and the rest end the hand-wringing, the rhetoric and the collusion in genocide and war crimes by immediately stopping arming Israel and putting a stop to Netanyahu’s illegal plan.”

Mr Netanyahu’s government has yet to confirm or deny that it is planning to take full control of Gaza. A statement from his office today said the Prime Minister is due to convene the security cabinet on Thursday night to discuss the military’s next steps.

Israeli media was awash with leaks and rumours today from meetings between Mr Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, who reportedly told the Prime Minister on Tuesday that he was “going to create a trap in Gaza.”

Seemingly washing his hands of the situation, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the occupation of Gaza was “going to be pretty much up to Israel.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s unrelenting siege of Gaza continued today.

Gaza’s health ministry reported that Israeli forces killed at least 135 people, including 87 aid seekers, today.

Though the Israeli military announced that “107 aid packages, containing food for the residents of the Gaza Strip, were air dropped by five different countries,” it continued to block humanitarian workers from getting in.

Hisham Mhanna, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told Al Jazeera that “we have lost colleagues, we have lost friends, families; everyone in Gaza is impacted.

“We have 350-plus staff members in Gaza who are struggling on a daily basis to find enough food and clean water, so you cannot possibly imagine how [it is for] civilians, who are most vulnerable, who have been living in displacement for 22 months.

“I see no way that they can continue living like this, and I can see no justification for this to continue any longer, not from any legal or moral perspective.”

And the World Health Organisation called on Israel to stop demanding that it, and other international humanitarian agencies, “share sensitive personal information about their Palestinian employees or face termination of their humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

“Unless urgent action is taken, humanitarian organisations warn that most international NGO partners could be deregistered by September 9 or sooner — forcing them to withdraw all international staff and preventing them from providing critical, life-saving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.”

The Palestinian Civil Defence agency also warned that it was running out of fuel to keep its rescue operations going.