Netanyahu says he wants Israel to take control of Gaza
As Israel’s security council meets, the UN has called an expansion of military operations “deeply alarming”.
Source: Fox News
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed Israel intends to take full control of all of war-torn Gaza, but doesn’t want to “keep it”.
Netanyahu met his security council on Friday morning (AEST) amid intensifying global criticism over the almost two-year war in the Palestinian enclave.
Ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu was asked on Fox News if Israel would take over the entire coastal territory, as had been reported earlier in the week.
“We intend to,” Netanyahu told Fox News.
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it.
“We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly.”
The UN has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza “deeply alarming” if true.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the plan included encircling Gaza City and relocating about a million residents to the southern part of the enclave.
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Outside Israel’s security council meeting, families of hostages joined a protest raging against the expansion of the war.
“Escalating the fighting is a death sentence and the immediate disappearance of our loved ones,” Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest, told The Jerusalem Post.
“Look us in the eyes when you choose to sacrifice them.”
The security cabinet session follows Netanyahu’s meeting this week with the head of the military. Israeli officials have described it as tense, saying the military chief pushed back on expanding the campaign.
Opinion polls show that most Israelis want the war to end in a deal that would bring the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas-led Palestinian militants.
A Palestinian boy sits at the rubble of the destroyed house of his family. Photo: AAP
Netanyahu’s government has insisted on total victory over Hamas, which ignited the war with its deadly October 2023 attack on Israel from Gaza.
The idea, pushed especially by far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition, of Israeli forces thrusting into areas they do not already hold in the enclave has generated alarm in Israel.
The mother of one hostage urged people on Thursday to take to the streets to voice their opposition to expanding the campaign.
The Hostages Families Forum, which represents captives held in Gaza, urged the military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to oppose widening the war and the government to accept a deal that would bring the war to an end and free the remaining hostages.
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Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that the military would carry out the government’s decisions until all war objectives were achieved.
Israeli leaders have long insisted that Hamas be disarmed and have no future role in a demilitarised Gaza and that the hostages be freed.
There are 50 hostages still held in Gaza, of whom Israeli officials believe 20 are alive.
Most of those freed so far emerged as a result of diplomatic negotiations.
Talks toward a ceasefire that could have meant more hostages were released collapsed in July.
A senior Palestinian official said Hamas had told Arab mediators that an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza would bring a resumption in ceasefire negotiations.
Israeli officials accuse Hamas of seizing aid to hand out to its fighters and to sell in Gaza markets to finance its operations, accusations that the militant group denies.
Videos released last week of two living hostages showed them emaciated and frail, stirring international condemnation.
The Israeli military says it controls about 75 per cent of Gaza.
Most of Gaza’s population of about two million has been displaced multiple times over the past 22 months.
Aid groups warn that the enclave’s residents are on the verge of famine.
“Where should we go? We have been displaced and humiliated enough,” said Aya Mohammad, 30, who, after repeated displacement, has returned with her family to their community in Gaza City.
“You know what displacement is? Does the world know? It means your dignity is wiped out, you become a homeless beggar, searching for food, water and medicine.”
Close to 200 Palestinians have died of starvation in Gaza since the war began, nearly half of them have been children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
About 1200 people were killed and 251 hostages taken to Gaza in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities.
More than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry. It said 98 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire across the enclave in the past 24 hours.
-with AAP
