Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza, despite intensifying criticism at home and abroad over the devastating, almost two-year-old war in the Palestinian enclave.
"We intend to," Mr Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News when asked if Israel would take over the entire coastal territory.
"We don't want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don't want to govern it. We don't want to be there as a governing body," he said.
Mr Netanyahu said that Israel wanted to hand over the territory to Arab forces that would govern it.
In response, Hamas said in a statement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remark constituted "a coup" amid the Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
Hamas added that Mr Netanyahu's plans to expand Israel's Gaza offensive show his aim is to sacrifice Israel's own hostages to serve his personal interests.
Mr Netanyahu made his comments to Fox News before the outcome of a meeting he is due to have with a small group of senior ministers to discuss plans for the military to take control of more territory in Gaza.
The security cabinet session follows a meeting this week with the head of the military, which Israeli officials have described as tense, saying the military chief had pushed back on expanding the campaign.
Opinion polls show that most Israelis want the war to end in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas-led Palestinian militants.
Mr Netanyahu's government has insisted on total victory over Hamas, which ignited the war with its deadly October 2023 attack on Israel from Gaza.
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The idea, pushed especially by far-right ministers in Netanyahu's coalition, of Israeli forces thrusting into areas they do not already hold in the enclave has generated alarm in Israel.
The mother of one hostage urged people on Thursday to take to the streets to voice their opposition to expanding the campaign.
The Hostages Families Forum, which represents captives held in Gaza, urged military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to oppose widening the war and the government to accept a deal that would bring the war to an end and free the remaining hostages.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said yesterday that the military would carry out the government's decisions until all war objectives were achieved.
Israeli leaders have long insisted that Hamas be disarmed and have no future role in a demilitarised Gaza and that the hostages be freed.
The UN has called reports about a possible expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza "deeply alarming" if true.
There are 50 hostages still held in Gaza, of whom Israeli officials believe 20 are alive.
Most of those freed so far emerged as a result of diplomatic negotiations. Talks toward a ceasefire that could have seen some more hostages released collapsed in July.
'Complete violation' of international laws
Communications Manager at Médecins Sans Frontieres Zoe Bennell said it is "hard to say" what the implications of Israel's complete occupation of Gaza would be.
However, she described news of the meeting of Mr Netanyahu and his security ministers to discuss the matter as "completely horrific".
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, she said Israeli occupation will "completely decimate the lives of Palestinians in Gaza on a scale that we maybe just are not even prepared for yet".
"And of course the whole thing is a complete violation of international laws," she added.
"So it's really shocking to hear the news, yes."
A senior Palestinian official said Hamas had told Arab mediators that an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza would lead to a resumption in ceasefire negotiations.
Israeli officials accuse Hamas of seizing aid to hand out to its fighters and to sell in Gazan markets to finance its operations, accusations that the militant group denies.
Videos released last week of two living hostages showed them emaciated and frail, stirring international condemnation.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but now controls only fragmented parts, insists any deal must lead to a permanent end to the war.
Israel says the group has no intention of going through with promises to give up power afterwards.
The Israeli military says it controls about 75% of Gaza. Most of Gaza's population of about 2 million has been displaced multiple times over the past 22 months and aid groups are warning that the enclave's residents are on the verge of famine.
"Where should we go? We have been displaced and humiliated enough," said Aya Mohammad, 30, who, after repeated displacement, has returned with her family to their community in Gaza City.
"You know what displacement is? Does the world know? It means your dignity is wiped out, you become a homeless beggar, searching for food, water and medicine," she told Reuters.
Close to 200 Palestinians have died of starvation in Gaza since the war began, nearly half of them have been children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Rabeeha Jamal, 65, a mother of six, has remained in her house in Gaza despite warnings in the past from the Israeli military to leave. For now, she said she intends to stay.
"Not until they force us, if the tanks roll in, otherwise, I will not go running in the street to be killed later," she said, calling for an end to the war. "We don't have anywhere to go."
Mr Netanyahu is under intense international pressure to reach a ceasefire agreement, but he also faces internal pressure from within his coalition to continue the war.
Some far-right allies in his government have advocated a full occupation of Gaza and for Israel to re-establish settlements there, two decades after it withdrew.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters that he hoped the government would approve the military taking control over the rest of Gaza.
'Military pressure kills hostages'
Gil Dickmann's cousin, Carmel Gat, survived 11 months in Hamas captivity, but was killed in Gaza just before Israeli forces arrived last August.
He said any decision by the security cabinet to occupy Gaza or expand military operations could mean the killing of more hostages.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said it was his family's "worst nightmare" when they found out Carmel had died.
"Military pressure kills the hostages," he said, adding that families of hostages will protest the cabinet's meeting.
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Mr Dickmann said the lives of many hostages could still be saved if Israel ends the war instead of occupying Gaza.
"That would be a victory for Israel and that would also mean victory for the people of Gaza, who would see the end of the war and the end of Hamas," he said.
The Middle East Director of the International Communities Organisation, Gershon Baskin, said any escalation of the war in Gaza endangers the lives of hostages and would destroy what little is left in Gaza.
He said whatever decision is made at today's security cabinet meeting is "crucial".
Speaking on the same programme, he said there is "nothing logical" about what Israel is planning to do.
"This war is over. Israel has achieved its strategic goal. Hamas is disseminated and admits it will not continue to govern Gaza," he said.
The Israeli government is under growing pressure to bring the war in Gaza to an end, with concern mounting after the United Nations warned that famine was unfolding in the territory of more than two million Palestinians.
The October 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's 2023 attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military claims are dead.
Israel's war has killed at least 61,158 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gaza health ministry, which are considered reliable by the United Nations.
