Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza in defiance of warnings that such a move would lead to countless more Palestinian deaths, further mass displacement and endanger Israeli hostages still held in the territory.
Before a security cabinet meeting to discuss Gaza’s future, the Israeli prime minister insisted that Israel does not want to ultimately govern the territory and would hand over that responsibility to friendly Arab nations.
Asked in an interview with Fox News if Israel would “take control of all of Gaza”, Netanyahu replied: “We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza.” The security cabinet would need to approve such a decision.
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter,” Netanyahu said. “We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life.”
In Gaza, where Israel’s air and ground war has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced most of the population, destroyed vast areas and caused a famine, Palestinians are braced for further misery. “There is nothing left to occupy,” said Maysaa al-Heila, who is living in a displacement camp. “There is no Gaza left.”
Aya Mohammad, a 30-year-old Palestinian who, after repeated displacement, had returned with her family to Gaza City, said: “Where should we go? We have been displaced and humiliated enough.
“You know what displacement is? Does the world know? It means your dignity is wiped out, you become a homeless beggar, searching for food, water and medicine.”
At least 42 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza on Thursday, according to local hospitals.
At a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday evening, Netanyahu was hoping to obtain approval for fully controlling the strip, Israeli media reported.
Two government sources told Reuters any resolution by the security cabinet would need to be approved by the full cabinet, which may not meet until Sunday.
The plan would mean sending ground troops into the few areas of the strip that have not been totally destroyed, roughly 25% of the territory where many of its 2 million people have sought refuge.
Israel is reportedly preparing a two-phase operation aimed at seizing control of Gaza City, with plans to evacuate about 1 million residents – half of Gaza’s population – in what officials describe as a temporary measure to establish civilian infrastructure in central Gaza.
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the proposal is being framed as a limited operation rather than a full invasion, apparently to placate military chiefs wary of long-term occupation. The chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, has reportedly warned that occupying Gaza would plunge Israel into a “black hole” of prolonged insurgency, humanitarian responsibility and heightened risk to hostages.
However, the operation’s goal – potentially involving up to five IDF divisions and lasting four to five months – suggests a far more extensive campaign. Israeli officials say it aims to pressure Hamas back into negotiations and possibly align with a broader US-led peace framework.
Yet many remain sceptical. As one unnamed security official put it: “We are entering a Vietnam model, with our eyes wide open.”
Hamas in a statement called Netanyahu’s comments “a blatant coup” against the negotiation process. “Netanyahu’s plans to escalate the aggression confirm beyond any doubt his desire to get rid of the captives and sacrifice them in pursuit of his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda,” the group said in a statement.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera the group would treat any force formed to govern Gaza as an “occupying” force linked to Israel.
Arab countries would “only support what Palestinians agree and decide on,” a Jordanian official source told Reuters, adding that security in Gaza should be handled through “legitimate Palestinian institutions.”
Earlier this year Israel and the United States rejected an Egyptian proposal, backed by Arab leaders, that envisaged the creation of an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza after the war.
Netanyahu is under intense international pressure to reach a ceasefire agreement, but he also faces pressure from within his coalition to continue the war. Some far-right allies in his government have pushed for a full occupation of Gaza and for Israel to reestablish settlements there, two decades after it withdrew.
The far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, told reporters on Wednesday that he hoped the government would approve the military taking control of the rest of Gaza.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that 99 people were known to have died from malnutrition in the Gaza Strip so far this year, with the figure probably an underestimate. International outrage over the humanitarian situation in Gaza has ratcheted up pressure on Israel, with UN agencies warning of famine.
The WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for scaled-up, sustained and unimpeded aid to be allowed to flow into Gaza, through all possible routes.
People in Gaza “have limited access to basic services, have faced repeated displacement and are now suffering from a blockade of food supplies”, he told the UN correspondents’ association ACANU. “Malnutrition is widespread and hunger-related deaths are rising.”
In July, nearly 12,000 children under five were identified as suffering from acute malnutrition – the highest monthly figure ever recorded.
More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to local health officials, though that figure is regarded as a significant underestimate. According to a satellite survey published by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, just 1.5% of Gaza’s farmland – less than one square mile – is now accessible and undamaged.
Meanwhile, in Israel, the families of the roughly 20 remaining living hostages have called for Israelis to protest against the government and a decision they fear would endanger the lives of their loved ones.
On Thursday morning, about 20 family members of those still held captive in Gaza boarded boats that departed from the coastal city of Ashkelon, near the border with Gaza, carrying yellow flags and posters bearing the images of the hostages, as they shouted their names.
“This is the moment for courageous leadership,” the families said, appealing directly to Netanyahu, as well as the lead hostage negotiator, Ron Dermer, and the IDF chief. “Continued obstruction, delay, and failure to bring our loved ones home will be a tragedy for generations. The responsibility is yours. Do not sacrifice our loved ones on the altar of an endless war.”
Of the 251 people kidnapped on 7 October 2023, by Hamas and its allies, 49 remain hostages in Gaza, of whom 27 have been declared dead by the army.
In the West Bank, Israeli authorities returned the body of the Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, who was killed by an Israeli settler last week, after his female Bedouin relatives began a hunger strike to protest the authority’s decision to hold his body in custody. The hunger strike was a rare public call from Bedouin women who traditionally mourn in private. Hathaleen was shot and killed by an Israeli settler during a confrontation caught on video.
Additional reporting by Reuters, AFP and Associated Press
