 "'Plan is not to occupy or annex': Inside Netanyahu's proposal to conquer Gaza City")
As Israel’s war in Gaza surpasses 22 months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a new and contentious strategy.
His latest plan calls for Israeli forces to seize control of Gaza City — a densely populated urban centre that has already borne the brunt of repeated bombings and ground incursions since hostilities began following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israeli territory.
The announcement signals a significant military escalation and raises new questions about the fate of Israeli hostages and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Despite sustained domestic criticism and growing alarm from the international community, Netanyahu remains committed to using force as a means to dismantle Hamas and recover the hostages still believed to be alive inside Gaza.
His plan has drawn scepticism from former Israeli military officials and relatives of hostages, while international leaders continue to express concern over deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
What is happening in Gaza City now?
The Friday announcement came with confirmation from Netanyahu’s office that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) would operate in the city while taking measures to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians outside areas designated for combat.
Prior to the war, Gaza City had a population of around 700,000 — comparable to Washington, DC.
However, the city has seen waves of displacement as civilians fled intense bombardment.
Many who returned during ceasefires now face renewed evacuation orders. Israeli officials have indicated that warnings could be issued to residents in targeted zones, potentially providing weeks of notice before ground operations begin.
The military campaign is likely to affect one of the few remaining parts of Gaza that had not already been placed under evacuation orders.
Given the city’s current role as a shelter for hundreds of thousands of displaced people, military action could further destabilise efforts to distribute essential supplies, including food and medical aid, in a region already facing a severe hunger crisis.
Much of Gaza City lies in ruins. Infrastructure in multiple neighbourhoods has been reduced to rubble following nearly two years of airstrikes and ground assaults.
While the Israeli government asserts that these operations are aimed at eliminating Hamas infrastructure and personnel, the cumulative destruction has rendered large portions of the city uninhabitable.
What is Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City?
The central objectives of Netanyahu’s war strategy remain unchanged: the destruction of Hamas’s military capabilities and the safe return of all remaining Israeli hostages.
However, progress on both fronts has stalled.
According to official Israeli figures, Hamas-led attackers abducted 251 individuals during the October 7 attacks that killed approximately 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
While many hostages have been freed through negotiated truces and other agreements, 50 remain in Gaza, with Israeli intelligence suggesting that 20 of them are still alive.
In recent days, Hamas has released footage showing severely malnourished hostages, suggesting that they, too, are suffering under the conditions imposed by the siege and ongoing conflict.
The group has warned that the lives of these captives may be in jeopardy should Israeli troops draw closer to their hiding places, believed to be tunnels or undisclosed locations within the enclave.
Families of those still in captivity have spoken out in frustration, accusing the Israeli government of prioritising military escalation over negotiations.
Last week, nearly two dozen relatives of hostages sailed toward Gaza’s maritime border, broadcasting emotional appeals from loudspeakers.
Among them was Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod is being held by Hamas. “Netanyahu is working only for himself,” Cohen told AP, adding that the prime minister is prolonging the war to satisfy members of his governing coalition who favor a more hardline approach.
Despite these domestic concerns, Netanyahu maintains that military pressure is necessary to compel Hamas to release the hostages. He has repeatedly insisted that surrender from the militant group and the return of captives would bring the conflict to an end.
“We intend to [take control of all Gaza] in order to assure our security, remove Hamas [from] there,” he told Fox News. “We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life.”
However, Netanyahu has yet to specify which Arab nations might participate in administering Gaza or what mechanism would be used to establish such an arrangement.
Is everyone in Israel on board Netanyahu’s new plan?
While the Israeli prime minister moves forward with the plan to capture Gaza City, divisions have emerged within the political and military leadership.
According to sources familiar with cabinet discussions, military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has expressed reservations about broadening the ground campaign.
Zamir reportedly argued during a closed-door security cabinet meeting that such a move would risk the lives of the remaining hostages and impose further strain on a military that has been engaged in continuous conflict across multiple fronts for nearly two years, reported Reuters.
Other former senior security officials have echoed this sentiment, pointing out that Hamas has already been significantly weakened.
These voices argue that an additional ground offensive would likely result in more casualties among Israeli soldiers without yielding meaningful strategic advantages.
The debate over Gaza policy has also revived longstanding political fault lines within Israel. The proposed takeover of Gaza City would effectively reverse Israel’s 2005 disengagement from the territory, in which it withdrew both troops and settlers.
That decision, still the subject of political controversy, is frequently cited by right-wing factions as the catalyst for Hamas’s rise to power following the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections.
Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have been especially vocal in urging a complete reoccupation of the enclave.
Some have even called for the relocation of Gaza’s Palestinian population and the reestablishment of Israeli settlements — positions that are widely opposed internationally and have been described by critics as efforts to reshape Gaza’s demography through force.
Nevertheless, according to News18, Netanyahu has pointed out that Israel does not intend to annex the territory. “We will not annex Gaza,” he said, outlining a vision in which Israel would secure its borders through a security buffer zone while turning over administration of the territory to external actors.
“We want to have a security perimeter,” he said, “We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.”
How has the humanitarian crisis in Gaza evolved?
The planned Gaza City operation comes amid worsening humanitarian conditions across the Strip. Over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ministry, though operating under Hamas’s governance, is staffed by medical professionals and is considered by the United Nations and independent analysts to provide the most reliable casualty figures in the conflict.
Israel disputes the numbers but has not released an alternative estimate.
Food insecurity has reached emergency levels. International relief organisations and UN agencies have issued dire warnings, citing widespread malnutrition and famine-like conditions in multiple areas.
Reports and images of starving children and emaciated civilians have shocked global audiences and intensified demands for an end to the fighting.
Even the United States — Israel’s closest ally — has grown increasingly uneasy with the conduct and continuation of the war.
US President Donald Trump, who has consistently backed Israel in previous conflicts, has stated that he wants the war to conclude and the hostages returned, though he stopped short of opposing a full Israeli takeover of Gaza.
Twenty-eight countries aligned with the West have called on Israel to end the hostilities. The United Nations labelled recent reports of an expanded offensive in Gaza as “deeply alarming.”
Calls for a ceasefire have become more urgent in the wake of the failed July negotiations that had previously held the promise of releasing more hostages and facilitating increased aid deliveries.
In response to international criticism, Israeli officials have maintained that Hamas is responsible for the suffering of Gaza’s civilian population. The government alleges that the group diverts humanitarian aid, distributing it among its fighters or reselling it for profit.
Hamas has denied these accusations. A senior Palestinian official stated that Hamas had informed Arab mediators that improving the flow of aid into Gaza could help revive stalled ceasefire talks.
Still, Netanyahu has publicly rejected the notion that famine is occurring in Gaza, despite mounting evidence from global health experts and aid organisations.
So, Netanyahu’s plan: Occupation or Transition?
Netanyahu has said that following the military campaign, Israel intends to hand over the territory to Arab forces capable of maintaining order without posing a threat to Israeli security.
Earlier this year, a proposal supported by Egypt and other Arab nations called for a post-war Gaza administration composed of independent Palestinian technocrats.
That plan was rejected by both Israel and the United States. Since then, no clear successor governance model has emerged.
A Jordanian official speaking to Reuters stated that Arab countries would only support governance arrangements endorsed by Palestinians themselves.
Hamas, for its part, has signalled it would consider any foreign governing force linked to Israel as an occupying entity. Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that any such arrangement would be treated as hostile.
The group insists that any deal must include a permanent end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Israeli leaders, by contrast, have voiced scepticism that Hamas would honour any post-war commitments to relinquish power.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
