The Government of Israel has approved this Friday the operation planned by the country’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to assume control of Gaza City, the most important city in the Palestinian enclave, as the first part of a plan of “five principles to end the war” against Hamas, which includes taking over the “security control” of the territory, expelling the Islamist movement, and disarming its militias.
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Furthermore, as part of that plan, Israel will seek the establishment of an alternative civilian administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, with a view to the “return of all hostages, alive and dead.”
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According to information from the Prime Minister’s office, “the Security Cabinet has approved the Prime Minister’s proposal to defeat Hamas, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will prepare to take control of Gaza City.”
According to the statement, the decision had the “majority of votes” from the security cabinet, which includes, among others, Netanyahu and the ministers of Defense, Justice, Foreign Affairs, Finance, and National Security. The opposition accuses that the presence of the far-right politicians Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in the cabinet “dragged” the prime minister into making this controversial decision.
What does the occupation of the City of Gaza mean?
Israel says it currently controls 75% of the Palestinian enclave and the Israel Defense Forces have largely avoided entering the remaining 25%, which mainly includes the city of Gaza and refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, due to the belief that most of the hostages are located there.
Almost all of the two million inhabitants of the enclave are in areas that are not under the control of the Israeli Army, most of them along the coast like Deir al Balah, and around 800,000 Palestinians are in the City of Gaza.
Harsh criticism from the Israeli opposition
The prominent Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid strongly criticized the right-wing government coalition as a whole, considering that the decision taken by Netanyahu “will cause the death of the kidnapped individuals and many soldiers, cost tens of billions to Israeli taxpayers, and lead to political collapse.”
The centrist politician stated that “that is precisely what Hamas wanted: for Israel to end up trapped in the territory without a goal, without defining the post-conflict scenario, in a useless occupation that no one understands where it leads to,” and added on his social media account X that the measure “is a disaster that will lead to many more disasters.”
Lapid also emphasized that the Israeli authorities approved the occupation and military control of the entire Gaza Strip “in total disagreement with the opinion of the Army and security commanders, and without taking into account the wear and tear and exhaustion of the combat forces.”
On the other hand, the president of the Yisrael Beitenu party and former Defense Minister, Avigdor Liberman, stated that the cabinet’s decision to push for the capture of Gaza City despite the objection of senior defense officials “demonstrates that life or death decisions are being made in opposition to security considerations and the goals of the war.”
“The Prime Minister of the ‘7th of October’ is once again sacrificing the safety of Israeli citizens for the sake of his position,” added Lieberman, who has been insisting for months, like much of the opposition, that Netanyahu is using the operation in Gaza to perpetuate himself in power and divert attention from the corruption cases he is being tried for at the expense, first, of the hostages and then of the rest of the population.
Yair Golan, leader of the Democratic Party, states that the decision means that “more hostages will be left to their fate” and that the measure is typical of Netanyahu: “He is weak, easily pressured, lacks decision-making ability, and is unable to bridge the gap between what the professional level represents and the group of messianics who control the government.” The decision is “a generational disaster,” Golan added to the Israeli Army Radio.