Jerusalem (AP) – Israel said at the beginning of Friday that it is planning to take over Gaza City, in another escalation of his 22 months of war with Hamas. The decision, made after a late night meeting of top officials, attracted Palestinian rejection, fought the international calls to end the war and caused concerns in Israel about the fate of hostages that are still being held by Hamas.
Israel’s air and ground war has already killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza, Most of the population moved” vast areas destroyed And pushed the territory to famine. Another important ground surgery would almost certainly aggravate humanitarian catastrophe.
Hamas refused Netanyahu’s plans in a statement and said that people in Gaza would “remain challenging against occupation.”
“Expanding aggression to our Palestinian people will not be a walk in the park,” said the group.
Netanyahu has indicated plans for even broader war
Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined more radical plans in an interview with Fox News and said that Israel was planning to take control of the whole of Gaza. Israel is already checking around three -quarters of the destroyed territory.
Israel’s plan, announced after the security cabinet has been met until Thursday evening, stopped with what Netanyahu had suggested and can be partially aimed at putting Hamas under pressure to accept a ceasefiring -fires on the conditions of Israel.
It can also be a reflection of the reservations of the best General of Israel, who reportedly warned that the expansion of the operations would jeopardize the remaining 20 or so living hostages by Hamas and the Israeli army would continue to push regional wars after almost two years.
The army “will prepare to take control of Gaza City and at the same time offer humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the battle zones,” said Netanyahu’s office in a statement after the meeting.
‘There is nothing to be occupied anymore’
Israël has repeatedly bombed Gaza city and has carried out countless raids thereOnly to return to different neighborhoods when militants regrouped. Nowadays it is one of the few areas in Gaza that has not been changed to an Israeli buffer zone or placed under evacuation.
An important ground surgery there could move tens of thousands of people and Further efforts to deliver food further disrupt To the hungry territory.
It is unclear how many people live in the city, which was the largest in Gaza before the war. Gaza City fled hundreds of thousands under evacuation -orders in the opening weeks of the war, but many returned during a ceasefire -the fire at the start of this year.
Palestinians were expecting more suffering above the decision, and at least 42 were killed in Israeli air strikes and shootings on Thursday, according to local hospitals.
The military offensive of Israel has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many hunters or citizens were. The ministry is part of the government run by Hamas and staffed by medical professionals.
The United Nations and independent experts consider the ministry’s figures as the most reliable estimate of victims. Israel has disputed them without offering her own toll.
“There is nothing to be occupied anymore,” said Maysaa al-Heila, who lives in a travel camp. “There is no Gaza about it.”
“We don’t want to keep it”
Asked in the interview with FOX News prior to the meeting of the Security Cabinet or Israel ‘would take control of the whole of Gaza’, Netanyahu replied: “We are planning to ensure our safety, to remove Hamas (van) there.”
“We don’t want to keep it. We want a security peripheral,” said Netanyahu in the interview. “We want to hand over to Arabic troops that will rule well without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life.”
Hamas Official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Thursday that the group would consider Netanyahu’s proposal of a force led by Arab in the post -war Gaza as connected to Israel. He warned that “the region could go into new problems.”
The military staff chief of Israel, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, warned against the occupying Gaza, and said it would endanger the hostages and after almost two years of war in the army, according to Israeli media reports about the meeting of the closed doors.
Hamas guided militants kidnapped 251 people and killed around 1,200 in October 7, 2023, attacks that caused the war. Most hostages are released in cease -the fire or other deals, but 50 remain in Gaza. Israel believes that about 20 of them lives.
The Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Friday that the cabinet’s plan would endanger them and Israel would not go to his objectives.
“This is exactly what Hamas wanted: to keep Israel on the ground without a goal, without defining the daily image, in a meaningless activity that nobody understands where it leads,” he said in a statement about X.
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