Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced early Friday morning local time that Israel’s Security Cabinet had approved a plan for the Israeli military to take over Gaza City.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said the Israel Defense Forces would prepare to take over Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside of combat zones.
According to Netanyahu’s office, the cabinet adopted five principles for ending the war. They included the disarmament of Hamas, the return of all hostages both living and dead, the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip, and the establishment of an alternative civilian government in Gaza that is not led by Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
The move comes after Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel intends to take control of all of Gaza but does not want to “keep” or govern the territory, and instead wants to hand it over to “Arab forces.”
In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu was asked if Israel “will take control of all of Gaza.”
“We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza, and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
“We don’t want to keep” Gaza, he added. “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. We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us, and giving Gazans a good life.”
An expansion of Israeli military operations in Gaza would draw strong international opposition and could further isolate Israel, which is being urged by close allies to end the war amid the growing concerns from humanitarian agencies about famine taking hold in the territory.
Negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas broke down in recent weeks, with each side accusing the other of being responsible for the failure.
“I think the negotiations have broken down completely because Hamas is not serious about negotiating,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in an interview with CBS News on Thursday. “I’m not sure they ever were, but they certainly aren’t anymore. Europe has given them some cover. When European leaders are putting more pressure on Israel than they are Hamas — and they’re talking about people in Gaza, and they’re not talking about the hostages — Hamas is celebrating, and they’re realizing that, you know, they’re winning the message war here.”
Huckabee said any decision to annex the Gaza Strip will be up to the Israeli government.
“It’s not our job to tell them what they should or should not do,” Huckabee said. “Certainly, if they ask for wisdom, counsel, advice, I’m sure the president would offer it. But ultimately, it’s the decision that the Israelis and only the Israelis can make.”