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Israel said it will take control of Gaza City — a move that could displace 1 million Palestinians living there — defying domestic concerns over the fate of the remaining hostages and an international outcry over the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
Israel said it will take control of Gaza City — a move that could displace 1 million Palestinians living there — defying domestic concerns over the fate of the remaining hostages and an international outcry over the humanitarian situation in the enclave.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved the operation early Friday for the purpose of “defeating Hamas” after 22 months of fighting that's killed tens of thousands of Gazans and sparked UN famine warnings. The decision stopped short of the full takeover that Netanyahu floated in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.
He said Israel would eventually “hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly, without threatening us, and giving the Gazans a good life.” The cabinet set a symbolic deadline of Oct. 7 to complete preparations, two years since Hamas — an Iran-backed Islamist faction which is on Western terrorism blacklists — triggered the war by attacking Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250, according to local media.
The new plan will require six army divisions — around twice the current deployment in Gaza, according to Israel's Channel 12.
After the meeting, Israel officially stated five conditions for ending the war that it's previously raised, including the disarming of Hamas, the return of all 50 remaining hostages, demilitarization and Israeli security control of the Gaza Strip, and the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
The shekel weakened by 0.3% following the cabinet decision and traded at 3.34 against the US dollar as of 09:30 am. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is closed on Fridays, but its benchmark index dropped 2.7% over the last week following reports of the upcoming decision.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid attacked the new plans, saying in a post on X that it will lead “to many more disasters,” and constituted a surrender to Netanyahu's far-right coalition members “in complete contradiction to the opinion of the military and security ranks, without considering the erosion and exhaustion of the fighting forces.
It's “a move that will lead to the death of the hostages, the killing of many soldiers, and cost tens of billions to Israeli taxpayers,” he added.
The decision marks an escalation in a conflict that's already devastated the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations World Food Programme has warned half a million people are starving.
The Israeli statement issued early Friday promised to “provide humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside combat zones,” but gave no further details on how that might be accomplished.
Israel blocked all aid to Gaza in March, and in May allowed the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US- and Israeli-backed relief group, to begin distributions. But the system has been shunned by traditional UN agencies, and the UN says more than 1,000 aid seekers have been shot near GHF stations — incidents for which GHF denies responsibility.
Israel has been plunged into international isolation over the spiraling humanitarian toll in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, and the flood of pictures of starving Palestinians in recent weeks has led to a growing number of longtime Western allies to call for Palestinian statehood.
On Friday, the Netherlands revoked permits for the export of naval ship components to Israel “due to the deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip” and “the risk of undesirable end-use.” Turkey condemned Friday's decision and called on the international community and the UN to prevent its implementation.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Netanyahu's government to “reconsider immediately” as “it will only bring more bloodshed.” Starmer added that Hamas must leave, disarm and can play no part in the future of Gaza, and reiterated the UK's support for a two-state solution.
At the same time, Israel has major diplomatic and logistical backing from the US, with President Donald Trump increasingly frustrated by Hamas's negotiating tack and offering to expand the GHF in concert with Israel Defense Forces advances.
The IDF already controls some 75% of Gaza, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whose towns and homes have been reduced to ruins. Gaza City, in the north, is among pockets of territory that have been subjected to air strikes but largely skirted by ground forces as Israel believes Hamas holds hostages there, 20 of which are thought to be alive.
Polls show that Israelis, by a wide majority, would prefer to see the war ended with Hamas intact if it means recovering the hostages and sparing the military more casualties.
The IDF's Chief of the General Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, proposed a softer plan that was rejected by the security cabinet because “a decisive majority of ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages,” according to the cabinet statement.
A group representing families of the hostages, who took to the streets across Israel during the cabinet meeting, said Friday morning in a statement that the “decision to pursue occupation of the Gaza Strip means abandoning the hostages, while completely ignoring the repeated warnings from military leadership and the clear will of the majority of the Israeli public.”
Zamir said on Thursday that the IDF intends to defeat Hamas and will operate with the hostages “at the forefront of our minds.”
Negotiations on a proposed third ceasefire and partial hostage release stalled last month, with Israel and its US ally blaming Hamas. The Palestinian faction sought an end-of-war commitment by Israel, which insisted that Hamas first give up power and weaponry.
Hamas — which Israel estimates still has around 20,000 men under arms, half its prewar numbers — is defiant. In Gaza City and the central towns that are also in Israel's sights, the Palestinian fighters retain tunnel systems that could enable hit-and-run ambushes on the Israeli army, which has lost more than 450 troops in Gaza so far. Hamas has also threatened to execute the 20 live hostages rather than see them rescued.
Source: HindustanTimes
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