Israel Plans Full Takeover of Gaza to Eliminate Hamas
Netanyahu says military control will be temporary, with future administration handed over to non-Hamas Palestinian entities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Thursday that Israel intends to take full military control of the Gaza Strip as part of efforts to remove the militant group, Hamas.
In an interview, Netanyahu clarified that Israel does not plan to permanently occupy or govern Gaza, but establish a security perimeter and then hand the territory’s administration over to other Arab authorities. If carried out, such a campaign would mark the first re-entry of Israeli forces throughout Gaza since the country’s 2005 withdrawal of troops and settlers from the area, a pullout that Hamas’s rise to power a year later was partly attributed to by Israeli hardliners.
The war between Israel and Hamas erupted after Hamas militants launched a surprise cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducting over 250 others. In response, Israel began a massive military offensive aimed at wiping out Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007. Nearly 22 months into the conflict, Israeli forces have recaptured large parts of the territory, totaling close to 75% of Gaza. Israeli officials say around 50 hostages seized in 2023 are still held in Gaza (with an estimated 20 believed to be alive) after prisoner-exchange talks broke down in July.
The prolonged fighting has taken a devastating toll on Gaza’s civilian population. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the war began. Continuous Israeli bombings and ground battles have reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble. Most of Gaza’s 2 million residents have been displaced multiple times, and aid groups warn the region is on the brink of famine due to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine. The United Nations has called reports of a wider Israeli campaign “deeply alarming,” cautioning that further escalation would worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis.