Netanyahu divides the Israelis and the Allies with the Plan to occupy Gaza

The plans of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a new military thrust in the Gaza Strip have raised warnings from the army management, the opposition of families in hostage and concerns that more Palestinians will be killed and risk further isolate the country.

While the security firm was preparing to meet to discuss the proposals, Netanyahu gave an interview to Fox News in which he declared that Israel intended to take total control of Gaza, in order to ensure his security, to withdraw Hamas from power and to allow the transfer of the governance of the civilian population to another party, without giving details.

But he suggested that Israel did not want to keep the territory.

“We don’t want to govern it,” Netanyahu said in English. “We don’t want to be there as a director. We want to give it to the Arab forces.”

He has not given details on the possible arrangements or which countries could be involved; However, it was a rare indication of what he could imagine for a post-war Gaza.

For the moment, however, Netanyahu wants an enlarged offensive which is likely to see the Israeli army, which says that it controls around 75% of the territory, operating in Gaza City and the camps of the central part of the strip, where around a million Palestinians live and the hosts are considered.

Potential operations, which could take months, would mean the mass movement of people likely to worsen the humanitarian crisis there.

This could arouse a new condemnation of the country which expressed their anger against the situation in Gaza and urged Israel to end the war of almost two years, which began as an answer to the attacks of Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023.

In a sign of great differences between political and military leaders, the Chief of the Israeli Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Eyal Zamir, told Netanyahu that the complete occupation of Gaza was “walking in a trap”, according to reports in the Israeli media.

Zamir, according to reports, warned that the offensive would endanger the lives of the 20 hostages that are alive and soldiers, exhausted.

Many hostage families share these concerns and say that the only way to guarantee the publication of hostages is by a negotiated agreement with Hamas.

According to the Maariv newspaper, “the current assessment is that most of them and perhaps all living hostages (will die)” during an enlarged offensive, killed by their kidnappers or accidentally by Israeli soldiers.

Speculations on an extended offensive have also exposed differences between some of the international allies of Israel.

British ambassador to Israel, Simon Walter said that the full occupation of Gaza would be a “enormous error”, while postponing Israeli allegations and allegations that possible recognition of the Palestinian state by the United Kingdom was a reward for Hamas.

Meanwhile, the American envoy, Mike Huckabee, a fervent supporter of Israel, said that it was up to the Israeli government to decide to fully take control of the band. “It is not our job to tell them what they should or should not do,” he told CBS News, the BBC information partner in the United States.

So far, Netanyahu has not offered a vision of Gaza after the war in addition to refusing to accept an in power for the Palestinian authority, the organization that governs occupied West Bank and recognizes Israel.

The polls suggest that most of the Israeli public promotes an agreement with Hamas for the release of hostages and the end of the war.

Israeli leaders say that Hamas, for the moment, is not interested in negotiating because, in their opinion, the group feels embraced by international pressure on Israel.

The threat of a complete occupation could be part of a strategy to try to force the group to make concessions in the talks in a standstill.

But many here believe that Netanyahu extends the conflict to guarantee the survival of his coalition, which is based on the support of ultra -nationalist ministers who have threatened to leave the government if there is an agreement with Hamas.

Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich also publicly defended the expulsion of the Palestinians of Gaza – which could constitute the forced displacement of civilians, a war crime – and reinterrupting it with the Jews.

The War of Israel in Gaza killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, led by Hamas.

The attacks of Hamas October 7 against Israel killed around 1,200 people, while 251 were taken to Gaza in hostages.