Israeli Cabinet to Consider Plan to Occupy Gaza City

The Israeli cabinet will plan to re -occupy the Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City on Thursday, according to information from Israeli media.

The Times of Israel, citing Israel channel 12, reports:

A plan reported for the complete occupation of the Gaza Strip, which should be presented for the approval of the cabinet by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tomorrow, is initially focused on the seizure of Gaza City and the widening of aid distribution centers in coordination with the United States, according to Hebrew media.

According to a Channel 12 report, in the first phase of the plan, Israel will publish an evacuation notice to residents of Gaza City – estimated at around 1 million people, about half of the Strip population – to allow time to set up civil infrastructure in the center of Gaza, including hospitals and camps for evacuated. This phase should last several weeks.

…

The operation would be designed to extend over several weeks, not months, and seems to be intended for a compromise with [Israel Defense Forces] The chief of staff the lieutenant-general Eyal Zamir, who warned against a complete invasion, initially limiting the operation to Gaza City, thus delaying the complete occupation.

THE Jerusalem Post Added:

David Horowitz, editor -in -chief of Times of Israel, explained that Israel is currently checking 75% of Gaza, largely in the south, and that the remaining 25% is the place where a large part of the population – and Israeli hostages – are.

Israel had not intended to reoccupy Gaza, but Hamas refuses to accept a cease-fire agreement in which it would release all the hostages while disarming and accepting that it would no longer governing the territory.

Given the Israeli public feeling, Hamas could probably remain armed and control Gaza – at least nominally – if it proposed to release the hostages, which would create irresistible public pressure in Israel to end the war.