Israel to ‘take control’ of Gaza City

ISRAEL'S military will “take control” of Gaza City under a plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and approved by his security cabinet, his office said in a statement yesterday.

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Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, Netanyahu faces mounting pressure at home and abroad for a truce to pull the territory's more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants.

Under the plan to “defeat” Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside combat zones”, the premier’s office said.

Before the decision, Netanyahu said Israel planned to take full control of Gaza but did not intend to govern it.

He told US network Fox News during the week that the military would seize complete control of the territory, where it has been fighting Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

He added that Israel did not want “to keep” the Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in 1967 but withdrew troops and settlers from in 2005.

Netanyahu said Israel wanted a “security perimeter” and to hand the Palestinian territory to “Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us”.

“That's not possible with Hamas,” he added.