The Israeli security cabinet, after a reportedly ten-hour meeting, approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to impose maximum violence and ethnic cleansing for at least another year on what’s left of Gaza. Officially, the plan is to defeat Hamas, according to the statement by the prime minister’s office early this morning. “The IDF will prepare for taking control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” it says.
The cabinet also adopted the five principles “for concluding the war”: 1. Disarming Hamas; 2. Return of all the hostages, living and deceased; 3. Demilitarization of the Gaza Strip; 4. Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip; and, 5. Establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
“A decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the Security Cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages,” the statement concluded.
The “alternative plan” had been presented by IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. “The lives of the hostages will be in danger if we go ahead with this plan to occupy Gaza. There is no way to guarantee that we will not harm them. Our forces are worn out, the military tools need maintenance, and there are humanitarian and sanitary [concerns regarding the Palestinian population],” Channel 12 quoted the IDF chief, reported the Times of Israel. He explained that a full occupation of the Strip will take a year or two to complete, with the initial phase of intensive fighting likely to last five months.
As for the future governance of the Strip, ToI notes that Netanyahu has long rejected a role for the PA, but the formal adoption of that red line risks leaving Israel alone to govern Gaza after the war (which assumes, of course, there are any Palestinians left in Gaza to be governed—cjo), as all Arab countries that have expressed willingness to assist in the rehabilitation effort have conditioned their participation on Ramallah’s involvement.
According to ToI, roughly 800,000 Palestinians—many of whom have already been displaced several times throughout the 22-month war—currently reside in Gaza City, in northern Gaza. A senior Israeli official told the Times of Israel, that the plan approved by the cabinet will see those civilians evacuated toward the south. The cabinet decision states that Palestinians will have until October 7, 2025 to evacuate Gaza City—a two-month window, which also coincides with the second anniversary of Hamas’ attack on Israel, the Israeli official said.
The IDF will then launch its ground offensive into Gaza City, placing a siege on the area in order to kill any remaining Hamas operatives. After the takeover is complete, the official indicated that the IDF will proceed to the remaining unconquered areas of Gaza.
