Israeli security cabinet approves plan to seize Gaza city

Israeli Security Cabinet Approves Plan to Seize Gaza

Israel's Security Cabinet has approved a military plan to take control of Gaza City, marking a significant escalation in its ongoing conflict, according to news agency Associated Press.

Ahead of the Security Cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel intends to take full military control of the Gaza Strip to defeat Hamas, with plans to hand over its administration to allied Arab authorities eventually.

“We intend to [take control of Gaza], in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza," he said.

Netanyahu emphasized that Israel has no intention of maintaining permanent control over Gaza and suggested that governance of the territory could eventually be transferred to Arab countries.

Also read: Netanyahu vows to take control of Gaza, hand over to ‘Arab forces’; Hamas calls it ‘coup’

"We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter," he further added, according to a report by the Irish Independent.

Hamas has criticized Netanyahu's comment, labelled it as “a coup."

“Netanyahu’s plans to escalate the aggression confirm beyond any doubt his desire to get rid of the captives and sacrifice them in pursuit of his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda," Hamas said in an official statement.

The decision signals a further escalation in Israel’s 22-month-long military campaign, launched in response to Hamas' October 7 attack. The conflict has already claimed tens of thousands of Palestinian lives, devastated large parts of Gaza, and brought its population of around 2 million to the brink of famine.

(With agency inputs)