Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel intends to take military control of Gaza and hand it over to Arab forces to govern.
Mr Netanyahu made the comments during an interview with the US’s Fox News, moments before he was set to meet members of his security cabinet on Thursday evening, local time, to discuss plans for a military takeover of the entire enclave.
When asked if Israel wanted to take control of all of the 42-kilometre strip, he said: “We intend to.”Â
In the interview, he added that Israel had no intention of governing Gaza, and instead wanted a “security perimeter”.
“We don’t want to keep it,” he said. “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.”Â
“We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life. That’s not possible with Hamas,” he added.
The security cabinet session follows a meeting earlier 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.
Israel already controls approximately three-quarters of Gaza’s territory. (AP: Ohad Zwigenberg)
UN says possible expansion ‘deeply alarming’
Mr Netanyahu’s government has faced international condemnation and growing domestic pressure to find an off-ramp to the 22-month conflict in Gaza.
Within Israel, Mr Netanyahu’s desire for a full military occupation of Gaza has faced criticism from both senior figures in the military, as well as from the families of hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
It has been reported the prime minister is also seeking approval from the security cabinet for military operations in densely populated areas where hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023 are believed to be held.
Israel at present controls 75 per cent of Gaza. The United Nations has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza “deeply alarming” if true.
Full control would also leave Israel obliged by international law to provide security and ensure the basic needs of the population are met.
Israel’s internal split over plans
The ranks of the Israel Defense Forces have been struggling with burn out and fatigue as the conflict in Gaza approaches the two-year mark.
Family members of some of the Israeli hostages have set sail from Israel towards Gaza’s maritime border, broadcasting their accusations via loudspeakers that Mr Netanyahu is seeking to prolong the war to satisfy far-right members of his governing coalition.
Meanwhile, 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 bring the war to an end and free the remaining hostages.
Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas are calling for the Netanyahu government to end the war. (AP: Leo Correa)
But far-right members of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition government appear to be pushing for the full take-over.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters Wednesday that he hoped the government would approve the military taking control over the rest of Gaza at Thursday’s meeting.
The war between Israel and Hamas was sparked by Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people were killed and saw another 251 hostages taken to Gaza.
More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry, which said 98 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire across the enclave in the past 24 hours.
Israel rejects those figures from the Gaza health ministry but does not publish its own, and does not allow foreign news organisations including the ABC access to Gaza to report freely.
ABC/wires