Bucking IDF warnings, safety cupboard approves Netanyahu plan to overcome Gaza Metropolis

[ad_1] The safety cupboard authorised in a single day Thursday-Friday a proposal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take over the densely populated Gaza Metropolis, the premier’s workplace introduced in an announcement, bucking warnings from the Israel Protection Forces that the operation dangers the lives of the remaining hostages along with probably sparking a humanitarian catastrophe.

Nonetheless, the limitation of the takeover to Gaza Metropolis didn't appear to go so far as what had earlier been characterised as a plan to occupy everything of the Strip. Netanyahu told Fox News hours earlier than the safety cupboard convened {that a} full takeover was his intention.

Notably, the assertion from Netanyahu’s workplace described the proposal as one aimed toward “defeating Hamas,” which means that there could also be subsequent operations past the one for Gaza Metropolis that had been authorised and never introduced.

The choice didn't use the phrase “occupy,” and as a substitute referred to “taking up,” resulting from authorized causes pertaining to Israel’s duty for civilian issues in Gaza, in accordance with the Ynet information web site. The outlet added, nevertheless, citing an unnamed senior Israel official, that this distinction was superficial, and the choice actually pertains to full navy rule. The conquest would cease if a hostage deal is clinched, in accordance with the report.

Ministers additionally endorsed 5 ideas to be fulfilled for the warfare to finish: Hamas’s disarmament, the return of all hostages, Gaza’s demilitarization, ongoing Israeli safety management of Gaza, and a post-war civilian authorities that excludes Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

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By signing up, you comply with the terms Israel says it at the moment controls 75 % of the Strip, whereas the IDF has largely averted getting into the remaining 25% — which largely contains Gaza Metropolis and refugee camps in central Gaza — as a result of perception that a lot of the hostages are being held there. Nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million residents are at the moment within the quarter of the Strip that the IDF doesn't management. Hamas has threatened to execute hostages if its operatives detect Israeli troops closing in; Hamas captors killed six Israeli hostages in Rafah, in southern Gaza, final August, when IDF troops inadvertently neared the tunnel the place they had been being held.

Some speculated after the cupboard resolution whether or not earlier discuss of a larger-scale operation had been a stress tactic aimed toward coaxing Hamas to return to the negotiation desk on Israel’s phrases.

Roughly 800,000 Palestinians — a lot of whom have already been displaced a number of occasions all through the 22-month warfare — at the moment reside in Gaza Metropolis, in northern Gaza. A senior Israeli official informed The Occasions of Israel information that the plan authorised by the cupboard will see these civilians evacuated towards the south.

The cupboard resolution states that Palestinians could have till October 7, 2025, to evacuate Gaza Metropolis — a two-month window that additionally coincides with the second anniversary of Hamas’s assault on Israel, the Israeli official mentioned.

The IDF will then launch its floor offensive into Gaza Metropolis, putting a siege on the world with a view to kill any remaining Hamas operatives. After the takeover is full, the official indicated that the IDF will proceed to the remaining unconquered areas of Gaza.

A safety cupboard assembly, in Jerusalem, June 14, 2025. (Avi Ohayon/GPO)

The assertion from Netanyahu’s workplace specified that Israel will present humanitarian help to the civilian inhabitants outdoors fight zones.

On Wednesday, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee mentioned that the controversial US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Basis will broaden its operations from three to 16 distribution websites that may function 24/7, ostensibly to account for the brand new evacuation.

The assertion from Netanyahu’s workplace additionally famous {that a} majority of cupboard members backed a listing of 5 ideas that Israel will demand be met earlier than it agrees to finish the warfare with Hamas: (1) The fear group’s disarmament; (2) the return of all 50 remaining hostages — 20 of whom are believed to be alive; (3) the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip; (4) Israeli safety management over the Gaza Strip; and (5) the existence of an alternate civilian authorities that isn't Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Fox Information on August 7, 2025 (Display screen Seize)

Netanyahu has lengthy rejected a job for the PA, however the formal adoption of that pink line dangers leaving Israel alone to manipulate Gaza after the warfare, as all Arab nations which have expressed willingness to help within the rehabilitation effort have conditioned their participation on Ramallah’s involvement.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu claimed within the Fox Information interview that after it finishes its takeover of the Strip, Israel will hand over management to “Arab forces.”

Demonstrators increase footage and flags throughout an anti-government protest calling for motion to safe the discharge of Israeli hostages, outdoors the prime minister’s workplace in Jerusalem on August 7, 2025. (Photograph by Ahmad Gharabli / AFP)

Through the 10-hour assembly that started at 6 p.m. on Thursday, IDF Chief of Workers Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir expressed his opposition to Netanyahu’s proposal.

“The lives of the hostages might be at risk if we go forward with this plan to occupy Gaza. There isn't a solution to assure that we are going to not hurt them. Our forces are worn out, the navy instruments want upkeep, and there are humanitarian and sanitary [concerns regarding the Palestinian population],” Channel 12 quoted the IDF chief as having mentioned.

He defined {that a} full occupation of the Strip will take a yr or two to finish, with the preliminary section of intensive combating more likely to final 5 months.

Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned in its assertion that Zamir introduced an alternate plan to the one backed by Netanyahu, however an amazing majority of ministers decided that it might not convey concerning the defeat of Hamas or the discharge of the hostages

Additionally in the course of the assembly, members of Israel’s hostage negotiating crew urged the ministers to not authorize any plan that may shut the chance for a future deal.

Netanyahu reportedly responded that the Gaza Metropolis operation could possibly be stopped at any level if Hamas agrees to Israel’s calls for.

On this image taken from a place on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, the solar units behind destroyed buildings within the Palestinian territory on August 7, 2025. (Jack Guez / AFP)

Far-right Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben Gvir pushed again on that provide, insisting that Israel should declare that it's going to not cease the operation till it's full and that the door to additional negotiations with Hamas has been shut.

Hostage households are vehemently against the plan authorised by the federal government, fearing it can result in their family members’ demise, and staged a fiery protest in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening. They had been joined by hundreds of supporters who blocked roads and clashed with police who tried to clear them.

They argue that the final 5 months have confirmed that navy stress has not led Hamas to launch the hostages and that Israel is able to comply with Hamas’s demand to finish the warfare, as the phobia group now not poses a strategic menace to the Jewish state because it did on October 7, 2023.

Hamas has totally transitioned to combating as a guerrilla group, inflicting roughly three dozen Israeli casualties since Israel broke the ceasefire in March by launching Operation Gideon’s Chariots, which was additionally aimed toward securing the discharge of the hostages and defeating Hamas.

Netanyahu argues that ending the warfare and withdrawing from Gaza, as Hamas calls for, will permit Hamas to regroup.

He's additionally reliant on far-right coalition companions who wish to completely occupy the Strip with a view to push Palestinians out of the enclave and re-establish settlements of their place.

Palestinians rush to gather humanitarian help airdropped by parachutes into Gaza Metropolis, northern Gaza Strip, August 7, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)

Along with rejecting a job for the PA, Netanyahu has refused for a lot of the warfare to advance a viable various to Hamas, which his critics say has allowed the warfare to tug out endlessly as the phobia group has managed to stay probably the most dominant Palestinian drive in Gaza.

For his half, Netanyahu has argued that no various to Hamas will be capable to survive in Gaza earlier than the phobia group has been defeated.

The continuing warfare in Gaza began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, bloodbath, wherein some 5,600 terrorists invaded Israel, killing 1,200 folks, largely civilians, and taking 251 hostages to the enclave.

The Hamas-run Gaza well being ministry says greater than 60,000 folks within the Strip have been killed or are presumed lifeless within the combating to this point, although the toll has not been verified and doesn't differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and one other 1,600 terrorists inside Israel in the course of the October 7 onslaught.

Israel’s toll within the floor offensive towards Hamas in Gaza and in navy operations alongside the border with the Strip stands at 459. The toll consists of two law enforcement officials and three Protection Ministry civilian contractors.

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