Israel’s security cabinet is meeting to decide on a military plan for the “complete conquest” of Gaza, a move that, if approved, would mark a significant escalation in the war and risk deepening the humanitarian crisis.
The plan, presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is understood to outline a four- to five-month ground campaign beginning with an offensive into Gaza City, the enclave’s most densely populated area. Parts of the city remain outside Israeli military control and have not been placed under evacuation orders, according to the United Nations. The proposed offensive could displace up to one million Palestinians toward the already overcrowded southern region of the Strip.
Speaking to Fox News ahead of the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu confirmed Israel’s intention to occupy the entirety of Gaza, saying the move is necessary to ensure Israeli security and eliminate Hamas control.
“We don’t want to keep it… we want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us. That’s not possible with Hamas,” he said Thursday.
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The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from within Israel’s military leadership. IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has reportedly warned that “occupying the Strip would put Israel in a black hole,” thereby entangling the nation in a protracted and costly engagement and further endangering the lives of the hostages still held in Gaza.
“We will continue to express our positions without fear, in a substantive, independent, and professional manner,” he was quoted as telling senior military officials ahead of the cabinet meeting.
In a video released over the weekend, Nadav Argaman, the former head of Israeli security agency Shin Bet, said: “The direction the government is currently heading to [is] an extremist, fundamentalist world view… it has taken us all hostage.”
As the debate over the plan unfolded, several families of hostages still held in Gaza staged a maritime protest, sailing toward the coastal waters off the Strip Thursday in an effort to pressure the government to prioritize hostage negotiations.
Among them was Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is being held captive in Gaza. “We need all international assistance to rescue the 50 hostages who are nearly two years held by the hand of Hamas” he told reporters during the voyage.
Viki Cohen, the mother of Nimrod, had previously condemned the proposed plan to occupy Gaza as “a death sentence for our hostages.”
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Israeli officials estimate that roughly 20 of the 50 hostages still in Gaza are alive. Netanyahu’s office has argued that Hamas is unlikely to release any additional hostages without what one senior official reportedly described as Israel’s “complete surrender.”
International concern over the reported plan has been mounting. U.N. Assistant General Secretary Miroslav Jenča called it “deeply alarming” during a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
“This would risk catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza,” he said, adding that only a ceasefire would bring an end to the violence.
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The humanitarian toll in Gaza continues to rise, after a U.N.-backed food security body warned last week that the “worst case famine scenario” is unfolding.
“Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths,” the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported on July 29.
At least 197 people have now died from mass hunger, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The Israel-Hamas war was triggered after Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. Over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, according to the ministry.
In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants and cannot be independently verified by TIME.
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