The Israeli Security Cabinet has approved a plan to take control of Gaza City, according to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, BBC reports. The New York Times, meanwhile, writes that "early Friday, the Israeli leadership approved a plan for a gradual military takeover of all of Gaza," UNN reports.
Details
NYT notes that after 10 hours of discussions, most members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet supported his proposal to prepare for the takeover of central Gaza City, according to a statement from his office released before dawn.
Netanyahu's office, as reported by the BBC, released a statement detailing the approved plans for taking control of Gaza City and the "five principles for ending the war," which the cabinet reportedly adopted by a majority vote.
"The Israel Defense Forces will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to civilians outside combat zones," the statement said, detailing the following principles for "ending the war":
- Disarmament of Hamas.
- Return of all hostages, both alive and dead.
- Demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
- Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip.
- Existence of an alternative civilian government, different from Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
"The absolute majority of cabinet ministers believe that the alternative plan presented to the cabinet will not lead to the defeat of Hamas and the return of the kidnapped," the statement said.
Netanyahu previously stated that he wants to seize the entire Gaza Strip – the approved plan focuses specifically on Gaza City, the largest city in the enclave, the BBC notes. Taking control of Gaza City will likely be the first stage of a full takeover of Gaza, suggests the BBC's Middle East correspondent.
As the NYT notes, it is expected that at a later stage, the military will advance into the central areas of the enclave, where Hamas is believed to be holding Israeli hostages and where Israeli forces have largely refrained from operations previously.
As noted, it will likely take the military at least several days to call up reserve forces, deploy troops to advance into Gaza City, and allow time for the forced evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from new combat zones.
The Israeli military stated that they have already captured about 75 percent of Gaza.
As the NYT writes, the military believes it can capture the remaining parts of Gaza within a few months, but establishing a system similar to the one they control in the West Bank would require up to five years of continuous fighting, three security officials said.
Addition
The UN previously warned that expanding Israeli military operations risks "catastrophic consequences" for Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages.
The war in Gaza began after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages to Gaza.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 61,158 Palestinians have been killed since then as a result of Israel's large-scale military offensive.