Speaking to Fox News’ Bill Hemmer on Thursday, Netanyahu laid out his vision for the operation, insisting that securing the freedom of the remaining Israeli hostages and finally breaking Hamas’ rule over Gaza were not mutually exclusive goals. “We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas,” he said. “I want to free 2 million Gazans from Hamas terrorism.”
According to Israeli media reports, the military operation entails encircling and evacuating Gaza City, the enclave’s capital and largest city, by October 7. An estimated 1 million people live in the urban center, which, relative to other areas of the war-ravaged Strip, has been mostly spared from Israel’s ground operations thus far, making it a Hamas bastion and symbol of resistance in the eyes of many Palestinians. After the evacuation period, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) plans to lay siege to the terrorist operatives who remain in the city.
During the Cabinet meeting, Israeli officials approved an operation focused solely on Gaza City. But it’s unclear whether, and when, the next phase of Netanyahu’s proposal to conquer the enclave in its entirety would begin. Under his initial plan, the military would also move into Gaza’s central refugee camps to dismantle Hamas infrastructure there. In the process, much of the enclave’s civilian population would be relocated to the southern Mawasi humanitarian zone, where Israel would construct hospitals, camps, and other facilities in preparation for the influx of people.
Simultaneously, the U.S. and Israel would coordinate to significantly ramp up the distribution of humanitarian aid across the Strip. In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced plans to increase the number of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation food sites from four to 16, and “begin to operate them as much as 24 hours a day.” According to Israel’s Channel 12, the effort would be funded by $1 billion in donations from the U.S. and other countries. In theory, the initiative would serve two primary goals: preventing a humanitarian crisis and further breaking Hamas’ ability to use aid as leverage over Gaza’s civilian population.
In his Thursday interview, Netanyahu laid out five key conditions for the “day after” the war: Hamas must lay down its arms, Gaza must be demilitarized, the hostages must be brough home, Israel must remain responsible for the enclave’s authority, and the enclave must be governed by a civilian authority that can live in peace with Israel. Under this blueprint, Israel would be able to reenter Gaza at will if there were signs that Hamas were trying to reconstitute. But Netanyahu also reiterated that Jerusalem wants no long-term role in Gaza’s governance. “We don’t want to keep it,” he said. “We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces.”
The specifics of that plan, such as which Arab countries have signed onto play a role in postwar Gaza, remain unclear. Speaking to Reuters, a Jordanian official denied his country’s involvement. “Security in Gaza must be done through legitimate Palestinian institutions,” the official said. “Arabs will not be agreeing to Netanyahu’s policies nor clean his mess.”
The proposed operation also met pushback from within Israel, as IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly warned that launching a full takeover of Gaza could drag the country into a “black hole.” Israeli troops are exhausted after more than 22 months of war, with turnout among reservists dropping to below 60 percent—far below the 120 percent reservist turnout in the days after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack. There are also concerns about the country’s international standing, as the renewed offensive comes on the heels of a particularly difficult few weeks for Israel on the international stage and in the media.
But, perhaps most importantly for Israelis, Zamir and others have warned that occupying the entire Strip could endanger the 20 living hostages who remain in Gaza. “What Netanyahu is proposing is another war, more dead hostages, more ‘cleared for publication’ announcements, and tens of billions of shekels from taxpayers’ money poured into the delusions of [Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said Thursday, referring to two far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government (both of whom have endorsed proposals to settle Gaza).
Hamas, meanwhile, played on Israeli concerns about the abductees’ fate. “Netanyahu’s plans to expand the aggression confirm beyond any doubt that he seeks to get rid of his captives and sacrifice them,” the terrorist group said in a statement.
But Netanyahu insists that a deal that both ensures the end to Hamas’ rule and frees the remaining hostages wasn’t on the table to begin with. Negotiations between Israeli and Hamas officials collapsed on July 24, with Washington and Jerusalem blaming the terrorist group for undermining talks. But an increasing share of Israelis are now willing to accept an agreement that leaves the terrorist group in control of Gaza. In a recent poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute, 54 percent of Israelis supported striking a hostage deal, even if it means Hamas stays in power. Just 37 percent said Israel should stay the course if doing so prevents the captives’ return.
As it prepares for a renewed offensive in Gaza, Israel may need to face this impossible choice in the days and weeks ahead. But Israeli and U.S. officials have emphasized that both objectives—freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas—need to be achieved before a lasting peace is within reach.
“There are 20 innocent human beings that are being held hostage in horrifying conditions,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an interview on Wednesday. “Not enough attention [is] being paid to the fact that 20 people that had nothing to do with this are being held hostage in tunnels on the verge of death—and no real talk about how Hamas needs to be disarmed and disbanded.”
