• Seeks security cabinet approval for offensive in besieged territory
• Hamas accuses Israeli PM of sacrificing prisoners for personal interest
• Palestinians brace for more destruction, fear full occupation
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel plans to take full control of Gaza but does not intend to govern it, as his security cabinet convened on Thursday to discuss the country’s war plans.
The meeting comes as Netanyahu faces mounting pressure at home and abroad for a deal to spare the remaining prisoners held by Palestinian fighter and pull the territory back from the brink of famine.
With tensions rising, Netanyahu took to the airwaves in the US, where he told Fox News the government intends to take full control of Gaza, following 22 months of war against Hamas. “We intend to,” Netanyahu replied, when asked if Israel will take control of “all of Gaza”.
Netanyahu is expected to seek the security cabinet’s approval for the expanded offensive, which will see the army operate in densely populated areas where prisoners are believed to be held, Israeli media reported.
Asked by Fox News if Israel would again control the whole of Gaza, as it did between 1967 and 2005, Netanyahu replied: “Well, we don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it.
“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 said.
Meanwhile, Hamas on Thursday accused Netanyahu of sacrificing the Israeli hostages held there.
“Netanyahu’s plans to escalate the aggression confirm beyond any doubt his desire to get rid of the captives and sacrifice them in pursuit of his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda,” Hamas said in a statement.
Ahead of Thursday’s meeting, rumours have been rife in the Israeli press about disagreements between the cabinet and Israel’s military chief, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, who is said to oppose plans to fully reoccupy Gaza.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz had weighed in on social media saying that “it is the right and duty of the chief of staff to express his position”, but the military must ultimately respect any policies adopted by the government.
In a statement released by the military on Thursday, Zamir underscored his independence, vowing to “continue to express our position without fear”.
“We are not dealing with theory — we are dealing with matters of life and death, with the defence of the state, and we do so while looking directly into the eyes of our soldiers and citizens,” Zamir said in the statement.
‘How much worse could it get?’
In Gaza, meanwhile, fears grew over what an expansion of combat operations would entail.
“Ground operations mean more destruction and death. There is no safe place anywhere,” said Ahmad Salem, 45. “If Israel starts and expands its ground operations again, we’ll be the first victims.”
“When will this nightmare end?” wonders Amal Hamada, a 20-year-old displaced woman who, like most Gazans, feels powerless before the threat of full Israeli occupation after 22 months of war.
Like nearly all Gazans, Hamada has been displaced several times by the war, and ended up in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, where the Israeli military carried out operations last month for the first time in the war.
“We’ve lived through many wars before, but nothing like this one. This war is long and exhausting, from one displacement to another. We are worn out,” the woman told AFP.
Like her, Ahmad Salem, 45, wonders how things can get worse in a territory that already faces chronic food shortages, mass displacement and daily air strikes.
“We already live each day in anxiety and fear of the unknown. Talk of an expansion of Israeli ground operations means more destruction and more death,” Salem told AFP.
“There is no safe space in Gaza. If Israel expands its ground operations again, we’ll be the first victims,” he said from a camp west of Gaza City where he had found shelter.
“We read and hear everything in the news… and none of it is in our favour,” said 40-year-old Sanaa Abdullah from Gaza City.
“Israel doesn’t want to stop. The bombardment continues, the number of martyrs and wounded keeps rising, famine and malnutrition are getting worse, and people are dying of hunger”, she said. “What more could possibly happen to us?”
Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2025