Israel plans Gaza occupation while Trump cuts deals on missiles and luxury properties

Caption: U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in early April 2025. Trump will soon visit Jerusalem, where the two leaders are expected to discuss details of Israel's full occupation of Gaza. | AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet have approved a plan to seize total control of Gaza and occupy the territory indefinitely.

Having already cut off almost all humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government is now planning a direct takeover and occupation and says it intends to continue controlling the flow of food and other assistance, supposedly in order to prevent any of it from ending up in the hands of Hamas.

On another front, Netanyahu has announced what could be a backdoor attempt to help the Trump administration shore up the right-wing Zelensky government in Ukraine. Israel is sending stocks of its U.S. Patriot missiles to Kiev to use against the Russian military.

The decision to directly administer and occupy Gaza is expected to be implemented as soon as President Donald Trump finishes a trip to that country next week.

A report aired by Israel’s public radio said the plan will not be implemented overnight but would happen gradually over a period of months. It is expected that Netanyahu and Trump will discuss further details when the U.S. president is in Jerusalem on an upcoming visit.

Netanyahu said in a video message online that the campaign to seize Gaza in its entirety would be an “intensive” one and would, “for their own safety,” involve the displacement of more Palestinian people in the territory.

Would not follow old approach

According to reports by Reuters, Netanyahu says Israeli troops will not follow the same tactics they relied on earlier, which focused on short in-and-out raids conducted by forces based outside Gaza. “The intention is the opposite,” he said, echoing comments from other right-wing Israeli officials who have said Israel would hold on to the ground it has seized. Thus far, they directly control at least a third of Gaza.

Even amidst the genocidal warfare, private companies are vying to lock in contracts for aid distribution in Gaza once Israel competes its takeover. They’re seeking to secure profitable administrative agreements with the Netanyahu government now. Although aid is currently being blocked, previously its distribution was handled not by private companies but by the U.N. and numerous public international agencies.

While Palestinians are looking ahead with dread toward the expected disaster that a total Israeli takeover will bring, they’re already facing an uptick in the number of deaths at the hands of Israeli military forces and an even bigger increase in the spread of disease.

Doctors no longer have the medicine they need to keep patients alive; they report that Palestinians are dying from heart and kidney ailments that would not kill them if needed medications were accessible.

Medical professionals in Gaza have told the press that the Israeli government is lying when it claims there are enough provisions and medicines available for the people of Gaza. Humanitarian organizations and many world governments report that the supplies are indeed not available and that Israel is in violation of international law by choking off aid.

“To the Israeli authorities, and those who can still reason with them, we say again: Lift this brutal blockade,” Tom Fletcher, the U.N.’s humanitarian aid chief told the New York Times this week.

Missiles for Kiev

On top of these violations of international law, Israel is stepping up to assist the Trump administration by serving as a middleman provider of U.S. weapons to Ukraine. This was stepped up almost immediately after Trump signed what most believe is a lucrative mineral deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is supported by Ukrainian oligarchs who will also make money from the agreement.

As soon as Zelensky signed the deal with Trump, he asked for more weapons from the U.S. Israel appears to be honoring that request through the back door by providing U.S. Patriot missiles to Kiev. The U.S. is refurbishing the missiles in Israel before they are then shipped to Ukraine for use in its war with Russia.

There are reports in the German press that Germany, too, is being pressured by the U.S. to send up-to-date refurbished missiles to Ukraine.

The Trump administration, when questioned by the Times, refused to answer or provide details about what is going on or whether there has been a shift in the U.S.’ methods of propping up Zelensky.

“The White House does not provide details on the strength and placement of defense systems,” said James Hewitt, a spokesman for the National Security Council. “President Trump has been clear: He wants the war in Ukraine to end and the killing to stop,” he said.

Zelensky told reporters in Kiev that the mineral deal he signed with Trump, the details of which remain secret, will result in more U.S.-made missiles coming to Kiev via other countries.

Profit pattern

After talking with Zelensky recently at the Vatican during the Pope’s funeral, Trump has hinted he could easily “switch sides” in the Ukraine war. The only predictable pattern with Trump is that he will line up with anyone who gives him the best “deal,” which often means whoever allows him to pile up the most personal profits from his so-called diplomacy.

Trump and his family are conducting intensive money-making operations in several regions of the world.

Just a few of the foreign policy and militaristic campaigns of the administration—on the strength of the $1.1 trillion military budget Trump is ramming through Congress—have already resulted in his family sealing deals on a new luxury hotel in Dubai, a residential skyscraper in Saudi Arabia, golf courses in Qatar, and now the lucrative mineral deals with Zelensky and oligarchs in Ukraine. These investments all come on top of Trump’s ventures within the U.S., including the establishment of a Mar-a-Lago type private club in Washington, D.C.

He has also pitched the idea of turning Gaza into a resort strip on the Mediterranean, something which would be made easier under a full Israeli occupation of the territory.

While the daily shifts in U.S. foreign policy under Trump remain unpredictable, clearer than ever is the reality that war will continue as long as the people in control are the billionaires, the weapons makers, the fossil fuel interests, and the oligarchs in both East and West. They are a company of thieves in which Trump feels quite comfortable.

As with all news analysis articles published by People’s World, the views represented here are those of the author.

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CONTRIBUTOR

John Wojcik

John Wojcik is Editor-in-Chief of People's World. He joined the staff as Labor Editor in May 2007 after working as a union meat cutter in northern New Jersey. There, he served as a shop steward and a member of a UFCW contract negotiating committee. In the 1970s and '80s, he was a political action reporter for the Daily World, this newspaper's predecessor, and was active in electoral politics in Brooklyn, New York.