BBC News, Jerusalem
ReutersIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to propose fully reoccupying the Gaza Strip when he meets his security cabinet, Israeli media say.
“The die has been cast. We’re going for the full conquest of the Gaza Strip – and defeating Hamas,” local journalists quote a senior official as saying.
Responding to reports that the army chief and other military leaders oppose the plan, the unnamed official said: “If that doesn’t work for the chief of staff, he should resign.”
The families of hostages fear such plans could endanger their loved ones, with 20 out of 50 believed to be alive in Gaza, while polls suggest three in four Israelis instead favour a ceasefire deal to return them.
Many of Israel’s close allies would also condemn such a move as they push for an end to the war and action to alleviate a humanitarian crisis.
Within Israel, hundreds of retired Israeli security officials, including former heads of intelligence agencies, issued a joint letter to US President Donald Trump on Monday, calling for him to pressure Netanyahu to end the war.
One of the signatories, ex-domestic intelligence agency chief Ami Ayalon, told the BBC that further military action would be futile.
“From the military point of view, [Hamas] is totally destroyed. On the other hand, as an ideology it is getting more and more power among the Palestinian people, within the Arab street around us, and also in the world of Islam.
“So the only way to defeat Hamas’s ideology is to present a better future.”
The latest developments come after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage deal broke down and Palestinian armed groups released three videos of two Israeli hostages looking weak and emaciated.
The footage of Rom Blaslavski and Evyatar David, both kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023, has shocked and appalled Israelis. David is shown digging what he says is his own grave in an underground tunnel.
There has been some speculation that the latest media announcements are a pressure tactic to try to force Hamas into a new deal.
Israel’s military says it already has operational control of 75% of Gaza. But under the proposed plan it would occupy the entire territory – moving into areas where more than two million Palestinians are now concentrated.
It is unclear what that would mean for civilians and for the operations of the UN and other aid groups. About 90% of Gaza’s 2.1 million people have been displaced, some repeatedly, and are living in overcrowded and dire conditions. Humanitarian groups and UN officials say many are starving, accusing Israel of impeding the distribution of crucial aid.
Israel meanwhile says it will allow local businesspeople in Gaza to restart entry of some goods as part of efforts to improve conditions there. Approved items include baby food, fruit and vegetables and hygiene products. Private imports were previously stopped because of claims that Hamas was benefitting.
The Israeli military has previously held back from taking over some areas of Gaza, including central parts, because of an assumption that there are living hostages held there. Last year, six Israeli hostages were executed by their captors after ground forces moved in.
There has not been a formal response but officials from the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, denounced the Israeli proposal, calling on the international community to intervene to prevent any new military occupation.
Palestinians point out that far-right Israeli ministers have been openly advocating for the full occupation and annexation of Gaza and ultimately want to build new Jewish settlements there.
In 2005, Israel dismantled settlements in the Gaza Strip and withdrew its forces from there.
But alongside Egypt, it maintained a tight control of access to the territory.
The new occupation idea comes amid growing international moves to revive the two-state solution – the long-time international formula to resolve the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict. It envisages an independent Palestinian state being created alongside Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Last week, the UK and Canada joined France in announcing conditional plans for recognising a Palestinian state.
The Israeli PM is now expected to meet with key ministers and military leaders to decide next steps in Gaza. Israeli army radio says they are due to discuss initial army plans to surround the central refugee camps and carry out air strikes and ground raids.
Netanyahu said he would convene a full security cabinet meeting this week.
Israeli media commentators have voiced scepticism and drawn attention to the practical military, political and diplomatic challenges. Writing in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Nahum Barnea says: “Netanyahu has never taken a gamble on this scale before.”
He notes that the Israeli PM has repeated his vow to achieve all of his war goals.
“But after 22 months of bloody fighting, it is hard to take those kinds of promises seriously. It seems that Netanyahu has just one objective in the war in Gaza, to prolong the war.”
Israel launched its military offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.
At least 61,020 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
