Israeli security cabinet approves plan to expand war, begins occupation of Gaza City

Israel's security cabinet has been meeting since yesterday afternoon to discuss Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans. Last night, after ten hours of deliberation, a reporter from the American news site Axios revealed that a majority of the cabinet has approved the plan to occupy Gaza City.

At a later stage, the army is expected to push into central parts of the Palestinian territory, where Hamas is believed to be holding Israeli hostages and where Israeli ground forces have made little intervention so far, The New York Times wrote.

Correspondent Pepijn Nagtzaam says that this indicates that the security cabinet has approved the plan presented earlier in the day by Netanyahu.

Before the talks began yesterday, Netanyahu told the American channel Fox News that he wants to occupy all of Gaza. These signals had already been made earlier. Experts called it a bleak scenario .

Currently, 86 percent of Gaza is already under an evacuation order for civilians. This video explains why:

By occupying Gaza City, Israel aims to end the war, Netanyahu's office announced last night. Israel has formulated five goals.

It would involve the disarmament of Hamas, the return of the fifty remaining hostages, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, Israeli control over the Gaza Strip, and a civilian government consisting of neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.

Furthermore, after more than a year and a half of war, Netanyahu has still not succeeded in freeing all the hostages and destroying the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. That group was behind the large-scale attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which Netanyahu believes triggered the violence in Gaza.

Netanyahu's proposed plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip has drawn strong criticism in recent days, including from the Israeli military. The Israeli army chief said he could not guarantee the safety of the remaining hostages.

The army chief also stated that he is not keen on embarking on an operation that will take months and require a significant military effort, while the Israeli army is experiencing significant attrition rates due to its ongoing deployment of soldiers for months.

He further said that a full occupation would have serious consequences for the humanitarian and sanitary situation.