Is Israel annexing Gaza?

Israel has announced that it is expanding its ground operations in Gaza to seize "extensive territory" there.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said today that troops will "destroy and clear the area of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure". This would require, he said, a large-scale evacuation of Palestinians, forcing most of the remaining 2.2 million into a small "humanitarian area" in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza last month, blaming Hamas for rejecting a US proposal to extend the ceasefire agreement. More than 600 Palestinians have since been killed, according to Hamas authorities. Last week, Katz warned that the Israeli army would permanently annex parts of the Gaza Strip if the remaining 59 Israeli hostages were not released. "The more Hamas persists in its refusal to release the hostages, the more territory it will lose," he said.

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What did the commentators say?

This latest military move is timed to "exploit what the Israeli government sees as growing antipathy towards Hamas among Palestinians", said Michael Evans in The Spectator. Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet has been "encouraged" by recent protests against the group in northern Gaza. The Israeli prime minister, under "persistent pressure" to negotiate the release of the remaining hostages, is "gambling that the massive expansion of the war" will bring them home.

But Katz's "worn-out mantra" about hostage release will not convince Hamas to change course, said Michael Milshtein, an expert in Palestinian affairs. There is "growing suspicion" that it serves as "a disguise to implement the ideological goal of annexation", he wrote on Israeli news site Ynet.

The Israeli military has drawn up "classified plans" to "fully occupy the territory within a few months and establish military rule", two anonymous sources told NPR. But both sources said it was unclear if the plans were actually "a negotiation tactic to pressure Hamas to release more hostages".

The new Israeli army chief, Eyal Zamir, believes the planned ground offensive could finally achieve what Israel has so far failed to accomplish: "the complete destruction of Hamas' rule and military capabilities", said Amos Harel in Haaretz. The "goal is to use Zamir's military campaign to establish military rule in Gaza".

Netanyahu has also given Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, a "secret assignment", said Axios: finding countries which would agree to receive large numbers of displaced Palestinians. Talks have taken place with South Sudan and Somalia, and other nations including Indonesia, Israeli officials told the news site.

"The idea of a mass transfer of Palestinians was once considered a fantasy of Israel's ultranationalist fringe," said The Associated Press. But since Donald Trump proposed it last month, as part of his development plan for Gaza, Netanyahu has "hailed it as a 'bold vision'".

Last week, Israel's cabinet approved the establishment of a special body to oversee the "voluntary departure" of the remaining Palestinians from Gaza. This has provoked "outcry" in Israel, said Joseph Massad, a professor of Arab politics, on Middle East Eye. Some have compared it to the Nazis' Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration, established in the late 1930s to expel Jews from Germany and Nazi-annexed Austria.

What next?

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel said, in a statement, that they were "horrified to wake up" to the news of the expanded military operation, and urged the government to prioritise securing the release of the hostages.

Sources say Israel is "still leaving room for an interim deal" that would do so, said Harel for Haaretz. But "given the political pressure", the escalation towards expanded military operations "is increasingly likely".

The plan "may face challenges" from within Israel's military reservists, according to NPR. Many are "exhausted from the war", and some say they will now refuse to serve in Gaza. Others say they will refuse to return to duties because of Netanyahu's recent sacking of "two top public servants serving as checks to the government". The sackings have "sparked massive protests across Israel".

Tens of thousands of Israelis are calling on Netanyahu to resign, angry at what they see as his "attempts to stay in power at any cost", said Al Jazeera. "People don't believe there's any purpose to continuing war," said political analyst Ori Goldberg.