Israel’s Security Cabinet Backs Plan to Seize Gaza City, Raising Fears for Hostages and Civilians

Israel’s Security Cabinet has approved a plan to take control of Gaza City, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced early Friday, in a move that signals a major escalation of the nearly two-year war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

The war has already killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, displaced most of Gaza’s 2 million residents, and left large parts of the territory in ruins. Tens of thousands now face severe hunger. Gaza City, once the territory’s largest urban center, is among the few areas not yet turned into an Israeli buffer zone or placed under evacuation orders.

Netanyahu has said Israel intends to retake all of Gaza, remove Hamas, and then hand governance over to “friendly” Arab forces. However, the approved plan stops short of that, reflecting warnings from Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, that occupying the city could endanger the roughly 20 remaining living hostages and strain an army already engaged on multiple fronts. Families of hostages, many opposed to further escalation, protested outside the Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

A full-scale ground operation in Gaza City could displace tens of thousands more people and further disrupt food deliveries. Many residents who fled early in the war returned during a temporary ceasefire but could again face evacuation.

The humanitarian crisis deepened Thursday as at least 42 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes and shootings in southern Gaza. Local hospitals reported that 13 of the dead were seeking food in a restricted military zone known as the Morag Corridor, where UN aid convoys have been plagued by chaos, looting, and deadly crowd crushes.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) accused the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which operates food distribution sites as an alternative to UN aid, of presiding over “orchestrated killing.” MSF said its clinics treated 1,380 people injured near GHF sites in six weeks — including 147 with gunshot wounds, among them 41 children. GHF rejected the allegations as “false and disgraceful.”

The United Nations, which denies Israeli and US claims of large-scale Hamas theft of aid, accuses GHF of forcing Palestinians to risk their lives for food and facilitating mass displacement.

Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have pushed for a broader campaign to depopulate Gaza and reestablish Israeli settlements dismantled in 2005 — policies critics say risk deepening Israel’s international isolation.

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack killed around 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 abducted; roughly 50 hostages remain in Gaza, about 20 of them believed alive. Families say time is running out.

“There is nothing left to occupy,” said Maysaa Al-Heila, sheltering in a displacement camp. “There is no Gaza left.”