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Netanyahu Says Israel Will Take Over the Entire Gaza Strip

The Israeli prime minister said control of Palestinian territory will be transferred to friendly Arab forces after Hamas is vanquished.

An Israeli tank near heavy machinery, with Gaza visible in the background. Photo: amir cohen/Reuters

An Israeli tank near heavy machinery, with Gaza visible in the background. Photo: amir cohen/Reuters

TEL AVIV—Israel will take control of the entire Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, a risky gamble that defies international pressure to end the war and lacks broad domestic support.

Netanyahu said Israel doesn’t plan to hold on to Gaza and would transfer control of the territory to “Arab forces that will govern it properly, without threatening us, and giving Gazans a good life,” he said in an interview with Fox News. He said Israel would keep what he called a security perimeter around the enclave.

“We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas,” Netanyahu said in the interview just before his cabinet gathered to vote on the new war plan.

The decision comes after a monthslong operation in Gaza that failed to advance Israel’s aims of freeing the hostages still held in Gaza or pressuring Hamas to surrender.

Netanyahu didn’t discuss further specifics of the plan, but Israeli security analysts familiar with its outlines said it would likely begin with the displacement of the hundreds of thousands of civilians living in Gaza city and a weekslong effort to set up aid distribution infrastructure, new living spaces and medical services. Israel’s military could then move toward areas of central Gaza where it has rarely operated throughout the 22 months of war, essentially displacing Gaza’s entire civilian population.

Israel hopes the new pressure will bring Hamas back to the negotiating table on its terms and could pause the operation at any point, the security analysts said.

Separately, the U.S. is considering taking a larger role in aid distribution inside Gaza, which is currently gripped by a hunger crisis and plagued by food insecurity.

 

Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at a press conference.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at a press conference in May. Photo: ronen zvulun/Reuters

 

On Wednesday, Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, told Fox News that there is an “immediate plan” to scale up the number of aid distribution points belonging to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S. backed private initiative. Huckabee said the number of sites would grow to 16 from four and could operate up to 24 hours a day.

The U.S.-backed aid initiative, designed to prevent Hamas from seizing aid meant for Gaza’s population, has resulted in hundreds of deaths, Gaza health authorities say, as Israeli troops fired at Palestinians moving through an active combat zone to reach the limited sites. Israel’s military has acknowledged opening fire on crowds it says came too close to its positions, but a military spokesman said the figures reported by Gaza authorities are inflated.

The program has been boycotted by the United Nations and other aid groups, which say it violates their principle of neutrality and forces civilians to cross dangerous territory to collect food.

The new Israeli battle plans are controversial internationally and domestically.

France and the U.K. have vowed to recognize a Palestinian state in September, and last month 28 countries including the U.K., France, Italy, Canada, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, Greece and Belgium called for an immediate end to the war.

The Israeli military so far has avoided ground operations in densely populated areas of Gaza City over fears it could endanger hostages who may be held in the area. Critics of the plan also worry about the potential cost in lives and suffering, among Gaza’s civilian population, as well as the possibility of greater numbers of deaths for Israeli soldiers.

Many Israelis say the country should focus its energy on securing a cease-fire to free the remaining hostages and ease the growing humanitarian cost of the war, which has left Israel increasingly isolated internationally.

“The occupation of Gaza is a very bad idea,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said after a security briefing with Netanyahu. “The people of Israel are not interested in this war. We will pay too heavy a price, both in human lives and billions of shekels of the Israeli taxpayer.”

If Netanyahu goes ahead with the plan, it isn’t clear to which authority Israel would ultimately transfer control. Legal experts warn Israel could be required to provide all basic needs of Gaza’s civilians, including food, water, electricity and medical services, if it moves toward taking full control of the enclave. That could cost Israel around $10 billion annually, or about 2% of its gross domestic product, according to a study by Esteban Klor, an economics professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Israel’s military chief, Eyal Zamir, has opposed the idea of a full takeover of Gaza, warning of falling into traps set by Hamas and the need to give exhausted troops a rest.

Israel’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a senior member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, strongly warned the country against occupying Gaza before being removed from his position last year by the Israeli prime minister.

Hostages families are strongly opposed to the new plans as well, and some held a protest outside the cabinet.

“Our loved ones face immediate danger,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing most of the hostage families.

Israeli officials backing the plan argue that while it is risky, Israel has no other path, since Hamas refuses to disarm and will eventually recoup its strength and attack again in the future. While the new plan endangers the hostages, they argue the hostages will die from maltreatment by their captors in the near future if more isn’t done to rescue them.

Israel already controls about 75% of Gaza’s territory, but only a small portion of Gaza’s more than two million inhabitants, many of whom have been displaced from their homes.

Write to Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com

Author: Dov Lieber

Source: WSJ:

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