The Israeli security cabinet approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans on Friday night to bring the Gaza Strip under full control. However, for the moment there is no plan for a complete takeover of the Palestinian territory. Gaza City is the primary target. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the security cabinet decided on five principles for ending the war in the Gaza Strip.
These included, among other points, Israel’s military control of the coastal area, the complete disarmament of the Islamist group Hamas, and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. Subsequently, an alternative civilian government should also be established there. According to media reports, Israel currently controls around three-quarters of the largely destroyed coastal strip, home to about two million Palestinians.
Since the beginning of the week, there has been speculation about a full takeover of the Gaza Strip by Israel. According to the official announcement, the plans just approved do not go that far for the time being. Focus exclusively on Gaza City Television station N12 reported, citing a senior official, that the newly approved operation will focus exclusively on Gaza City, in the northern part of the coastal area.
The goal is to evacuate residents to refugee camps in the central section of the Gaza Strip, a process expected to take place in early October. Media outlets had previously speculated that the now-official announcement of an expansion of the fighting could also be part of a negotiation tactic to place massive pressure on Hamas in ceasefire talks. states.
Qatar and Egypt were already pressing Hamas to return to the negotiating table. In an interview with U.S. broadcaster Fox News shortly before the start of the security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that Israel wanted to take control of the entire Gaza Strip but not occupy the area permanently; before that, Israel’s military leadership had also pushed back, pointing to the dangers of such an operation.
The Palestinian territory must be freed from Hamas to eventually hand it over to other forces—forces that would not call for the destruction of Israel, as the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas does. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, of the liberal Yesh Atid party, described the capture of Gaza City decided by the security cabinet as a “catastrophe” that “will lead to many more disasters.”
The planned seizure of the largest city in the Gaza Strip will result in the death of the hostages and the killing of many Israeli soldiers, Lapid wrote on the X platform. Prime Minister
Netanyahu has allowed himself to be led by his far-right coalition partners Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, Lapid said, contrary to the objections of the army’s leadership. The two far-right ministers advocate the full takeover of the Gaza Strip and the expulsion of the roughly two million Palestinians living there. Yair Golan, of the left-wing Democratic Party, fears that the “death sentence for the hostages” has already been signed.
