Israeli security cabinet OKs Gaza City takeover

What happened

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet this morning approved a proposal for the Israeli Defense Forces to take over Gaza City, the largest population center in the embattled Gaza Strip. "We intend to" take over all of Gaza, but "we don't want to keep it" or "govern it," Netanyahu said on Fox News Thursday. "We want to hand it over to Arab forces" after defeating Hamas.

Who said what

The resolution approved by the security cabinet "appeared to stop short of Netanyahu's proposal" but "also did not explicitly rule out or reject" the idea, The Washington Post said. A full Gaza takeover would be a "gamble that defies international pressure to end the war and lacks broad domestic support," The Wall Street Journal said. Polls show "most Israelis want the war to end in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages," Reuters said.

"What Netanyahu is offering is more war, more dead hostages" and "tens of billions of taxpayer shekels poured into the delusions" of his hawkish right-wing allies, opposition leader Yair Lapid said. As the security cabinet met Thursday night, "thousands, including freed hostages," protested across Israel against expanding the war, Ha'aretz said.

In pushing forward with the "pivotal and risky" incursion, Netanyahu is also "bucking the advice of the Israeli military," The New York Times said. The IDF's chief of staff, Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir, has "pushed back against the plan," citing concerns about the "exhaustion and fitness of reservists" and "becoming responsible for governing millions of Palestinians."

What next?

The resolution still needs approval "by the full cabinet, which may not meet until Sunday," Reuters said, citing two government sources. If the plan is approved, the Times said, the military would likely need "days, at least, to call up reserve forces" and "allow time for the forced evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the new areas of combat."

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