Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza, despite intensifying criticism at home and abroad over the devastating almost two-year-old war in the Palestinian enclave.
“We intend to,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer when asked if Israel would take over the entire coastal territory. “We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.”
He said that Israel wanted to hand over the territory to Arab forces that would govern it. He did not elaborate on the governance arrangements or which Arab countries could be involved.
Netanyahu made the comments to Fox News shortly before a meeting he was due to have yesterday with a small group of senior ministers to discuss plans for the military to take control of more territory in Gaza.
The security cabinet session follows another meeting this week with the head of the military, which Israeli officials have described as tense, saying the military chief had pushed back on expanding the campaign.
Two government sources said any resolution by the security cabinet would need to be approved by the full cabinet, which may not meet until Sunday.
Among the scenarios that were being considered ahead of the security meeting was a phased takeover of areas in Gaza not yet under military control, one of the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Evacuation warnings could be issued to Palestinians in specific areas of Gaza, potentially giving them several weeks before the military moves in, the person added.
Total control of the territory would reverse a 2005 decision by Israel by which it withdrew Israeli citizens and soldiers from Gaza, while retaining control over its borders, airspace and utilities. Right-wing parties blame that withdrawal decision for Hamas gaining power there in a 2006 election.
It was unclear whether Netanyahu was foreseeing a prolonged takeover or a short-term operation aimed at dismantling Hamas and freeing Israeli hostages.
Hamas in a statement called Netanyahu’s comments ‘a blatant coup’ against the negotiation process.
“Netanyahu’s plans to expand the aggression confirm beyond any doubt that he seeks to get rid of his captives and sacrifice them,” the statement said.
Arab countries would “only support what Palestinians agree and decide on,” a Jordanian official source told Reuters, adding that security in Gaza should be done through ‘legitimate Palestinian institutions’.
Earlier this year Israel and the US 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 end of the war.
Opinion polls show that most Israelis want the war to end in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. US President Donald Trump declined on Tuesday to say whether he supported or opposed a potential full military takeover of Gaza by Israel.
Netanyahu’s government has insisted on total victory over Hamas, which ignited the war when it staged a deadly October 2023 attack on Israel from Gaza. The UN has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza ‘deeply alarming’ if true.
The idea, pushed especially by far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition, of Israeli forces thrusting into areas they do not already hold in the enclave has also generated alarm in Israel.
A senior Hamas official has accused US envoy Steve Witkoff of repeatedly undermining efforts to reach a ceasefire between the Palestinian group and Israel in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Outside the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem yesterday evening, hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest against the notion of an expanded war, demanding an immediate end to the military campaign in return for the release of all of the hostages.
Protesters held signs bearing the faces of hostages still held in Gaza and voiced deep frustration with the government’s handling of the crisis.
The Hostages Families Forum, which represents captives held in Gaza, urged military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to oppose widening the war and the government to accept a deal that would end the war and free the remaining hostages.
Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview on Al Arabiya English’s Counterpoints programme, Basem Naim claimed that Witkoff ‘undermined a serious chance to reach a ceasefire agreement’ on multiple occasions.
Naim said Hamas had initially hoped that US President Donald Trump’s stated desire to end wars globally would translate into concrete action in Gaza, but that such hope had been disappointed.
“Unfortunately, in our case, we have seen repeatedly that [the US is] backing the position of this fascist Israeli government – in all forms,” Naim said. “Even, sometimes, if the cost or the price is to undermine a serious chance to reach a ceasefire.”
He claimed there had been multiple moments when a truce was within reach but was derailed ‘by one of those two parties – either the Israelis or the Americans’.
Naim insisted that Hamas remains committed to negotiating a ceasefire – even a temporary one – as a step toward ‘a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.’
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