Jerusalem, 8 August, 2025 (TPS-IL) — After an all-night discussion, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a proposal to expand the war on Hamas including reoccupying the Gaza Strip, and adopting five principles for ending the war, the Prime Minister’s Office announced early Friday morning.
“The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Netanyahu’s office said.
The five principles for ending the war adopted by the Security Cabinet were the disarming of Hamas, the return of living and dead hostages, Gaza’s demilitarization, Israeli security control over the Strip, and the establishment of “an alternative civilian government that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir presented his objections, citing risks to the lives of the hostages and exhaustion of army reservists. Zamir reportedly advocated an additional encirclement of Gaza, which the ministers ultimately rejected.
“An absolute majority of Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan presented to the Cabinet would not achieve the defeat of Hamas or the return of the abductees,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Ahead of the meeting, Netanyahu told a delegation of Indian journalists, “Israel does not want to annex Gaza, but to transfer control of the Strip to an international governing body that is disconnected from Hamas.”
It is expected that residents of Gaza City will be evacuated southward before the army mounts a new push into areas it has not entered during 22 months of war.
Excluding the Palestinian Authority from post-war Gaza could be a sticking point with moderate Arab states, who have conditioned their involvement with Ramallah also having a role.
Approximately 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 50 remaining hostages, around 30 are believed to be dead.
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