Israeli security ministers are keeping the meeting to decide to fully reoccupy Gaza. This is a move marking a massive escalation of conflict after nearly two years of war on the territory.
Despite international pressure, opposition from Israeli military and domestic concerns feared that the operation would put hostages at risk, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a full acquisition of the besieged enclave.
In an interview with Fox News just before the Security Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu was asked if Israel plans to take all military control of Gaza.
“We intend,” Netanyahu said. He argued that Israel aims to “remove Hamas” in Gaza. He then argued that he was aiming to pass the territory to “private governance, not Hamas, but to anyone defending Israel’s destruction.”
The Prime Minister’s comments have led to a strong response from Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid. “What Netanyahu is offering is more wars, more deadly hostages, and even ‘published’ notices, with billions of taxpayer Shekels pouring into the delusions of (Itamar) Ben Gwyr and (Bezarel) Smotrich.”
Some families of 50 hostages still in Gaza organized several protests on Thursday, appealing to the government to withdraw the plan.
Knowing the proposal, Israeli officials said the phased plans under consideration will take up to five months, with about one million Palestinians from Gaza city and other regions being forced into refuge areas in southern Gaza. The military will establish compounds to accommodate large influx of evacuated Palestinians.
As part of the plan, Israel and the US will increase the number of controversial aid distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) from up to 16 sites today, officials said.
Netanyahu has yet to present detailed plans for how Gaza should be governed in the future. But speaking to Fox on Thursday, he gave a hint, “We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to the Arab forces who will properly govern it without threatening us and giving Gazan a good life. That’s not possible in Hamas.”
The operation aimed at increasing pressure on Hamas and freeing the remaining Israeli prisoners could be suspended if extremist groups return to negotiations, officials noted.
The final round of talks, which began with prominent optimism, collapsed two weeks ago after the US and Israel pulled delegations from Qatar, with US envoy Steve Witkov accusing Hamas of negotiating “with malicious intentions.” Hamas said he is ready to return to the negotiation table, but that sufficient humanitarian assistance will only be entered into Gaza once.
Hamas on Thursday said Netanyahu’s statement ahead of the security cabinet meeting was “a blatant reversal of the negotiation process.”
“The plan to expand Netanyahu’s aggression confirms there is no doubt that he is trying to expel prisoners and sacrifice them to serve his personal interests and his radical ideological agenda,” the group said in a statement.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that whether or not he will take over all of Gaza “almost all to Israel,” effectively giving Netanyahu a green light.
Israeli forces have already controlled about 75% of Gaza after a 22-month war, saying that the majority of the territory was left in abolished, causing a humanitarian crisis. The expanded operation allows Israel to potentially enter some remaining areas of Gaza, which are out of direct control to destroy Hamas. Such a scenario would put Israel in legal liability for the welfare of Palestinians in Gaza.
However, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned on Tuesday evening that a full Gaza takeover would lock troops inside the enclave and put the remaining hostages in danger, sources told CNN on Wednesday.
In rare recognition of the disagreement between Israeli military forces and its political leaders, Zamir said on Thursday that “culture of debate is an inseparable part of Jewish history. We will continue to express our position in a professional, independent, substantive way.”
On Thursday, far-right finance minister Bezarel Smotrich celebrated Israeli military operations in Gaza as a means to once again build Jewish settlements on its territory. Sumotrich visited the reestablished settlements of Sanur on the occupied West Bank, and said Israel would “one day return to all the places we were exiled.” Using biblical terminology on the Northwest Bank, Smotrich said, “It applies to Gaza and certainly to Samaria.”
Polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of Israelis support the end of the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza.
The remaining hostage families in Gaza have condemned the government’s plans to expand the war.
“Netanyahu works against hostages,” said Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is still being taken prisoner in Gaza. “Netanyahu works to kill hostages by continuing to pilot them in Gaza, especially in areas with hostages.”
Cohen and other families of hostages sailed towards Gaza’s maritime border on Thursday, calling for an end to the war.
When the fleet departed from the port of Ashkelon in southern Israel, Rior Holev of the Hostage and Missing Family Forum told CNN that sailing was a “SOS call.”
“The Cabinet’s decision to extend the war would be a death sentence for the living people, making it impossible for people who were killed in Hamas and still held in Gaza to return,” Horev said.
The forum said Thursday it plans to plan a protest outside the venue of the Security Cabinet Meeting in Jerusalem to reject the potential expansion of the war.
Meanwhile, Kibbutz Nir Oz, a southern Israeli community that was overrun by Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023, was suspended in protest of Netanyahu’s plans.
“The Cabinet is now meeting to discuss a future that will be condemned forever. Let’s say that – enough!” the representative of Kibutz said in a statement.
Nir Oz is one of the communities that has been hit hardest by terrorist attacks, with one in four members being killed or lured. The nine are still being held hostages in Gaza.
