Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he “intends to” take over the whole of the Gaza Strip and then turn it over to “civilian governance”.
Netanyahu’s comments come ahead of a meeting of Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday evening to discuss the expansion of military activity in Gaza.
The 75-year-old, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes, made the comments in an interview with Fox News.
He said that once Israel seizes full control of the Palestinian territory, Gaza would eventually be run by civilians who have no ties to armed groups like Hamas.
“We want to have a security perimeter, we don’t want to be there as a governing body – we want to hand it over to Arab forces,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli government is widely expected to approve a plan to conquer all other parts of Gaza that it currently does not occupy, according to an anonymous official.
Netanyahu has been meeting this week with top advisers and security officials to discuss what his office said are ways to “further achieve Israel’s goals in Gaza” after the breakdown of ceasefire talks last month.
It comes amid warnings of starvation and famine in Gaza, with Israel attracting widespread condemnation for restricting the flow of aid into the territory.
Israeli-led aid delivery sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have also been the scenes of numerous mass killings of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers whilst attempting to access aid.
According to the United Nations, more than 850 people have died near GHF sites in the past two months.
The international aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières described the deaths as “orchestrated killing”.
MSF said it had treated nearly 1,400 people wounded near the sites between June 7 and July 20, including 41 children and 28 people who were dead upon arrival.
On Thursday, at least 29 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes and shootings across southern Gaza, according to local hospitals.
Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said 12 of the fatalities were from people attempting to access aid from a distribution site.
At least 50 people were wounded, many from gunshots, the hospital said. Neither the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation nor the Israeli military, which helps secure the group’s sites, immediately commented on the strikes or shootings.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of operating in densely populated civilian areas.
Expanding Israel’s military operation would likely trigger more international condemnation, with pressure already on Israel to end the war.
In July, Canada joined the UK and France with plans to recognise Palestinian statehood at the UN General Assembly in September unless Israel and Hamas committed to a series of conditions.
Sir Keir Starmer has defended the plans and said there is a “sense of revulsion” at the images seen in Gaza.
It has also drawn opposition from the families of hostages still being held by Hamas inside Gaza, who have denounced the plan and say the move could threaten their loved ones.
On Monday a video released by Hamas showed two hostages, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, in visibly emaciated states.
On Thursday almost two dozen relatives of the hostages set sail to the maritime border between Israel and Gaza to blast messages to their family members over loudspeakers.
Yehuda Cohen, the father of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza, said from the boat that Netanyahu is prolonging the war to satisfy extremists in his government and to prevent it from collapsing.
“Netanyahu is working only for himself,” he said, pleading with the international community to put pressure on Netanyahu to stop the war and save his son.
Hamas still holds 50 hostages in Gaza, around 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Israel’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, warned that the plan would endanger the hostages and further strain the country’s already stretched army. His comments appear to have exposed a rift between Netanyahu and his military.
Demonstrations were planned across Israel on Thursday evening to protest the expected cabinet decision.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 in the October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the current war.
Israel’s military offensive in response has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants.
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