Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a new offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip will be an intensive military operation aimed at defeating Hamas, but stopped short of detailing just how much of the enclave’s territory would be seized.
In a Hebrew-language video message on X, addressing the Security Cabinet-approved plan to expand the Gaza offensive, Netanyahu said on Monday that Gaza’s Palestinian population “will be moved, for its own protection”.
Eighteen months of Israeli attacks have killed more than 52,000, including thousands of children, and wounded nearly 120,000 others.
Netanyahu also said Israeli soldiers would not go into Gaza, launch raids and then retreat. “The intention is the opposite of that,” he said.
His remarks come as Israel’s political and military leaders approved plans to expand the Gaza offensive and take over aid deliveries to the devastated and starving enclave.
Netanyahu’s cabinet unanimously approved plans to call up reservists and put the Israeli military in charge of food and other vital supplies to the 2.3 million people suffering under its blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Newswires reported unnamed Israeli officials suggesting that the plans include the “conquest” and occupation of the entire Gaza Strip.
The expanded offensive “could go as far as seizing the entire enclave”, the Reuters news agency reported.
“The plan will include, among other things, the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories, moving the Gaza population south for their protection,” a source told the AFP news agency.
The source added that Netanyahu “continues to promote” United States President Donald Trump’s plan for the voluntary departure of Palestinians from the enclave.
The plan also includes the possibility of Israel taking over the provision of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
According to Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, this violates “humanitarian principles”.
“The United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have said no to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military,” Egeland told Al Jazeera.
Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicise the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south, a scheme where people will be screened where it’s a completely inoperable system”.
“That would force people to move to get aid, and it would continue the starvation of the civilian population,” he added.
The Israeli government has rejected claims from aid groups that famine is stalking the enclave, despite having blocked the entrance of all supplies on March 2 –16 days before it resumed its assault.
Citing an unnamed Israeli official, The Times of Israel said the plan would involve “international organisations and private security contractors [handing] out boxes of food” to families in Gaza.
Israeli soldiers would provide “an outer layer of security for the private contractors and international organisations handing out the assistance”, the outlet said.
Heated
Earlier, the Israel Hayom newspaper and The Times of Israel cited sources as saying the plan would include the occupation of Gaza.
This is something that Hamas has strongly rejected.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said the group would only accept a deal with Israel that includes a comprehensive ceasefire and the complete withdrawal from Gaza.
“Our people have no choice but to achieve a comprehensive deal that guarantees security and safety for our people,” he said, adding that any Israeli efforts to achieve concessions through threats or mass killings would fail.
The revelations have stirred significant tension inside Israel as well.
Netanyahu again asserted that the goal was to “defeat” Hamas and bring back several dozen captives held in Gaza.
However, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli campaign group, said in a statement on Monday that the plan is “sacrificing” those still held in the Palestinian territory.
Heated disagreements also reportedly erupted during the cabinet meeting between the political and military echelons.
Army chief Eyal Zamir reportedly warned that Israel could “lose” the captives in Gaza if it pushed ahead with a full-blown military offensive.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that, as Israel has done in the past two months, it should continue to block all food, water, medicine, fuel and other aid from entering Gaza to starve the population.
He also advocated for “bombing food warehouses and generators” so there are no more supplies and electricity is fully cut off.
But Zamir warned this would “endanger” Israel as it would expose the country to even more allegations of violations of international law.
“You don’t understand what you are saying. You are endangering us all. There is an international law, we are committed to it. We cannot starve the Strip, your statements are dangerous,” Samir said, according to Israel’s national broadcaster, Kan.
In an interview with Israeli Army Radio, opposition leader Yair Lapid questioned Netanyahu’s decision to mobilise tens of thousands of reservists, saying the prime minister was calling up troops and extending their service without setting a goal for the operation.
Another opposition figure, Yair Golan, said Netanyahu was only trying to save his government from collapsing as the plan “serves no security purpose and does not bring the release of the hostages closer”.
Aid in security zones as ‘military strategy’
Ben-Gvir was reportedly the only member of the Security Cabinet who opposed the plan for Israel to bypass existing aid routes by international organisations.
Israel reportedly plans to use US security contractors to control the flow of aid into Gaza.
However, the plan is not expected to come into effect immediately, as Israeli officials believe there is enough food in Gaza for now, even as Palestinians are starving to death.
The Israeli plans also envisage the establishment of a new “humanitarian zone” in southern Gaza that would work as a base for aid.
The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), a forum that includes United Nations agencies, said on Sunday that Israeli officials were seeking its consent to deliver aid through what it described as “Israeli hubs under conditions set by the Israeli military, once the government agrees to re-open crossings”.
In a statement, the HCT said such a plan would be dangerous and would “contravene fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
The coalition said the UN would not participate in this scheme as it does not adhere to the global humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.
That position was supported by Hamas, which on Monday branded Israel’s plans to takeover aid provision “political blackmail”.
“We reject the use of aid as a tool of political blackmail and support the UN’s stance against any arrangements that violate humanitarian principles,” the armed group said in a statement, insisting that Israel is “fully responsible” for the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
The humanitarian organisations said their teams “remain in Gaza, ready to again scale up the delivery of critical supplies and services: food, water, health, nutrition, protection and more”.
They urged world leaders to use their influence to lift the blockade so that “significant stocks” waiting at the border could be delivered.
In February 2024, more than 100 Palestinians were killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on desperate Palestinians waiting for trucks delivering food, in what has become known as the “flour massacre“.
The Israeli military acknowledged that it had coordinated the convoy with private contractors, rather than the UN or other humanitarian aid organisations with experience delivering food aid safely.
The US military also tried to build a $230m floating pier in May 2024, as an alternative way to deliver aid to Gaza. But the trouble-prone structure was closed months later, after only bringing in the equivalent of about one day’s worth of pre-war food deliveries.
Five people were killed in March 2024 in one of several efforts to deliver food by air drops. Humanitarian groups have said that airdrops are not able to replace the quantities needed to deliver food to more than 2 million people living in Gaza.
