Almost two years have passed since the Israeli tanks arrived in Gaza City for the first time, shortly after Tel Aviv launched its offensive against the strip after the attacks of October 7, 2023. Since then, the army has destroyed whole neighborhoods of which it was the largest and most prosperous city of the enclave and has expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. The dead throughout the strip are more than 60,000, most civilians. Now, Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu has ordered the troops to take control of every city of Gaza, despite the warnings and internal and external opposition to their plans.
The decision was taken by the Security Cabinet at a long meeting that ended in the early hours of Friday, after a week of speculation about the new Netanyahu plan to expand the Israeli occupation of the Strip, to which both the army and citizenship sectors have opposed. The head of the ultra -rightist government seemed determined to occupy the entire Palestinian territory but, for the moment, it has promoted the taking of what remains of the city of Gaza, which will cause the displacement of about one million people and their overcrowding in a portion of the increasingly small territory.
Without the support of the army
The Israeli government has not published the details of the plan approved by the Security Cabinet – and that will also need the approval of the Council of Ministers – but it is evident that it responds to a political will rather than a military strategy.
According to leaks published by Israeli media, the chief of the General Staff of the defense of Israel, Eyal Zamir, has warned that you cannot give a “humanitarian response” to around one million people who will be displaced and that “everything will be complex.” In addition, Zamir has reiterated that the expansion of military operations in Ciudad de Gaza will put the hostages at risk, 50 of which remain in the hands of the Palestinian militias since October 7, 2023, but only about twenty is believed to continue alive.
In the previous days, the Army Chief had expressed his opposition to Netanyahu's plan to occupy the entire strip because that would entail that the troops prolong their operations in Gaza – where more than 450 uniformed men have already died – and, in addition, they could be caught in a guerrilla war with the militiamen of Hamas. That possibility is even higher in Gaza City, the broader and wider and built urban core, where it is believed that the armed movement had some of its bases and where the headquarters of the government that headed the political movement was headed.
Zamir raised an “alternative plan” to Netanyahu on Tuesday of this week, but the security cabinet considered that “it would not achieve the defeat of Hamas or the return of the hostages”, two of the five objectives that the organ has set, not counting for it with the criteria of military strategists or reality on the ground.
“We hear that there is a disagreement in the Israeli system between Netanyahu and the head of the Army. That disagreement is how to proceed in the next phase, not if I proceed. I would like part of that disagree In an interview. “Even so, it seems that there are also elements internally of that battle.”
The Army Chief has not expressly mentioned the plan to occupy Ciudad de Gaza, but has held a meeting with the commanders in charge of the offensive in the strip on Friday. According to a statement, in that meeting they evaluated the plans for “the continuation of the land operations in Gaza”, where the troops control around 75% of the territory.
“In the next few days, the IDF will improve their operational planning with professionalism, while maintaining the safety of the troops and strategic resistance to create the conditions for the return of the hostages and the defeat of the Hamás regime,” said the army, referring to the safety of their men already that of the kidnapped, the two main reasons why the military dome is opposed to the plans of Netanyahu.
For its part, Hamas has said that these plans constitute “a full -fledged war crime” and show that Israel's “Nazi government does not care” the fate of their prisoners. ” In a statement, the group has ensured that expanding the occupation of the strip “means sacrificing them” (to the hostages) and, at the same time, is “a continuation of the genocide policy, forced displacement and brutal practices” of the Netanyahu Executive.
A unclear plan
“The Israel Defense Forces (FDI) will prepare to take control of Ciudad de Gaza, while distributing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat areas,” he said In a statement The Netanyahu office, which reported the decision adopted “by majority” by the Security Cabinet – integrated by the Prime Minister, other members of the Government and high security and military command.
An official high -level Israeli source has told the newspaper Haaretz That “when the great operation in Ciudad de Gaza begins, the opportunity will be given to the opportunity to evacuate to other areas for their safety.”
In the past weeks, The Israeli army had already ordered To the Palestinians leave areas of the east of the city and many residents, as well as displaced from other places, are currently in informal camps in the west of the city, near the Mediterranean coast. When the new invasion begins, they will have to leave for the fields of displaced in the center of Gaza and the Southern Coast, which are already saturated and do not have basic services.
According to the source consulted by Haaretzthe plans do not include for now the taking of the camps in the central area of Gaza, where the inhabitants of the north and southern of the strip have been expelled in the past 22 months of war, in which almost all the more than two million Gazatis have been forced to leave their homes. The same source has indicated that the army can take “the effective control of Ciudad de Gaza without there are troops present throughout its territory.” Other Israeli media calculate that the offensive to empty and occupy the city can last several months.
Strong internal opposition
The families of the hostages have been the ones that have rejected Netanyahu's plan more sharply. The group that brings together most relatives of the 250 kidnapped in Israel (some of whom have died in the past 22 months, killed by their captors or in army operations) has said in a statement that “the decision to continue with the occupation of Gaza means abandoning the hostages, completely ignoring the repeated warnings of military leaders and the clear will of the majority of the majority of the Israeli public.”
“Our government leads us to a colossal catastrophe, both for the hostages and for our soldiers. The cabinet decided last night to undertake another march of recklessness, at the expense of the hostages, the soldiers and the Israeli society as a whole,” said the forum of the families of the hostages and the missing. However, he said that “it is not yet too late” and that “the people of Israel can and should stop this dangerous strategy”, once again urging a high -fire agreement by which the hostages are released with life and returned the bodies of the deceased.
The majority of those kidnapped on October 7, 2023 have been released by virtue of agreements between Israel and Hamas, for two truces (at the end of 2023 and between January and March 2025). But the latest indirect negotiations, with the mediation of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, concluded without result last July, when Tel Aviv and Washington retired from the conversations blaming Hamas from failure.
The forum of the Families of the hostages and the disappeared has summoned new mobilizations, but its continuous protests and actions have not served so far so that Netanyahu access to Pause, limit or stop the war in Gaza, that many analysts inside and outside Israel consider that the prime minister understands as necessary to stay in power.
“He does not seek a quick victory. He wants to leave all possible options and win time, at the same time avoiding any threat to his ruling coalition,” He wrote this Friday Masters Harel in Haaretzensuring that the prime minister benefits to perpetuate war. The columnist refers to the coalition partners who support Benjamín Netanyahu, the ultra -nationalists Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who have exerted a lot of pressure so that the war continues and to achieve an objective that they have openly declared: the reoccupation of Gaza and the restoration of the Jewish settlements (which Israel dismantled in 2005 unilaterally).
“A perpetual war could also help Netanyahu when achieving a second objective: to ensure his victory in the next elections, even if all surveys precise his defeat. He would get him undermining the democratic process systematically under the pretext of war and his needs,” Harel added.
Since March, when Israel unilaterally broke the high fire in Gaza, surveys point out that citizens mostly support a negotiated end of the war that entails the release of all hostages. Although surveys also show variable support to the occupation or annexation of territory in the strip, the release of the Israelis who remain captive is a clear priority of public opinion.
That public opinion has not withdrawn its support for the government and the army, even after the murder of more than 61,000 Palestinians and a famine in Gaza caused by the Israeli blockade. The Netanyahu executive has been more threatened by conflicts between coalition partners, including two ultra -orthodox Jewish parties.
The Israeli opposition has not opposed the war, but to the increasingly warm -war plans of Netyahu. The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, took advantage of this Friday to load against the Government, qualifying the occupation of Ciudad de Gaza as “disaster that will lead to many more disasters”, which is “in complete contradiction with the opinion of the army and security officials.”
From abroad, more or less hard criticisms have also arrived at the Netanyahu Plan, specifically from Europe. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, asked the Israeli government to “reconsider” the plan, as did the British government, while the Spanish warned that this plan will cause “more destruction and suffering.” Germany and the Netherlands have gone one step beyond the convictions and have canceled some weapons deliveries to Israel.