Newsletters
Israel's Security Cabinet approved a new plan to bring Gaza City, located in the northern Gaza Strip, under occupation, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
"The Israeli army will prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones," the Prime Minister's Office said Friday on X.
Hamas, in a statement, called Netanyahu's comments "a blatant coup" against the negotiation process.
"Netanyahu's plans to expand the aggression confirm beyond any doubt that he seeks to get rid of his captives and sacrifice them," the statement said.
The Security Cabinet approved five key principles for concluding the war: dismantling the Palestinian group Hamas, securing the return of all hostages—both alive and deceased—demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, ensuring Israeli security control over the area, and establishing a civilian government not led by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
"A decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the Security Cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages," it added.
According to Israeli media outlet Yediot Aharonot, the word "occupation" was deliberately not used in the Security Cabinet meeting due to legal responsibilities. Instead, the term "control" was preferred.
A senior Israeli official speaking to Yediot Aharonot said, "Our intention is to occupy Gaza, but for legal reasons we use the term 'control' in official documents and statements."
According to the newspaper, this choice was made to avoid direct responsibilities toward civilians in occupied territories under international law.
The Israeli Security Cabinet, which discussed the occupation of the entire Gaza Strip, held a meeting Thursday evening. Before the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News that they "aim to bring all of Gaza under control."
According to KAN News, the meeting lasted about 10 hours.
Following the Cabinet's decision, a senior Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that the military would initially "target the terrorist strongholds in the city," with operations eventually expanding to include the central refugee camps.
The entire operation is expected to last at least six months.
According to local sources, the Israeli army is preparing to occupy all of Gaza City in the Gaza Strip.
According to a U.S.-based news website Axios, an Israeli official stated that the attack the army is preparing for will only cover Gaza City and will not extend to refugee camps or other areas. According to the official, the goal is to forcibly displace all civilians in Gaza City until Oct. 7, directing them to refugee camps in the central areas and surrounding regions. Then, a ground assault will be carried out against Hamas members remaining in the city and the city will be completely besieged.
1 min read
Asked if Israel would take over the entire coastal territory, Netanyahu told Fox News Channel's Bill Hemmer in an interview on Thursday: "We intend to."
"We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza, and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel," Netanyahu said.
"We don't want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don't want to govern it. We don't want to be there as a governing body," he said. "We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us, and giving Gazans a good life."
Israeli officials described a previous meeting this week with the head of the military as tense, saying military chief Eyal Zamir had pushed back on expanding Israel's campaign.
Gaza City was home to some 700,000 people on the eve of the war, about the population of Washington, D.C. Hundreds of thousands fled under Israeli evacuation orders at the start of the war, but many returned during a cease-fire earlier this year.
Israel already occupies and has largely destroyed around 75% of Gaza, with most of the population of some 2 million Palestinians now sheltering in Gaza City.
Israel's deadly offensive has already killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Total control of the territory would reverse a 2005 decision by Israel by which it withdrew Israeli citizens and soldiers from Gaza, while retaining control over its borders, airspace and utilities.
Opinion polls show most Israelis want the war to end in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages.
There are 50 hostages still held in Gaza, of whom Israeli officials believe 20 are alive. Most of those freed so far emerged as a result of diplomatic negotiations. Talks toward a ceasefire that could have seen more hostages released collapsed in July.
Two government sources said any resolution by the security cabinet would need to be approved by the full cabinet, which may not meet until Sunday.
2 min read
