Israel’s Security Cabinet was slated to meet Thursday night to decide on the continuation of the war on Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, with one option being a full-fledged occupation of the enclave.
The ministers were set to gather at 6 p.m. at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem for the pivotal meeting and a subsequent vote. The session is scheduled to last until 11 p.m. but expected to last longer.
A senior official told Ynet on Wednesday afternoon that while the Cabinet was expected to support the proposal to occupy Gaza to defeat Hamas, “things can always change in the Middle East.”
Senior government officials told the outlet that any proposal brought to the Cabinet by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would win a majority.
Ahead of the vote, Netanyahu on Thursday afternoon met with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has come out in support of occupation, as well as reestablishing Israeli communities throughout Gaza.
According to the report, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir will press ministers to vote against Netanyahu’s proposal, which he was said to believe would endanger hostages and debilitate the IDF.
Zamir will reportedly recommend a plan to encircle Gaza City and the central refugee camps while continuing raids by IDF commando units, which he believes will allow for renewed hostage negotiations with Hamas.
Netanyahu, on the other hand, believes that Israel cannot afford to carry out a long-lasting siege on Hamas while the hostages held by the terrorist organization are starving. In addition, the premier thinks it is currently impossible to recover any hostages as part of an agreement.
Zamir, speaking at a multi-front situational assessment with the IDF’s General Staff Forum on Thursday, said that the military was approaching the final stages of “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” in the Gaza Strip.
“We now have the ability to establish a new security reality along the border, while maintaining continuous pressure on the enemy,” the general declared in his remarks to senior commanders.
“We will no longer limit our response. We will remove threats in their early stages across all arenas and continue working to achieve our goals,” he said.
“Our intention is to defeat Hamas and continue to operate with our hostages at the forefront of our minds; we will do everything in our power to bring them home,” Zamir said.
Fifty hostages remain in captivity in the Strip, including 20 to 22 who are believed to be alive after being kidnapped across the border during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.
On July 24, U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said that Washington would examine “alternative options” to bring home the captives as Hamas “does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith.”
Witkoff went on to say that “it is a shame that Hamas has acted in this selfish way” during hostage negotiations, stressing that the Trump administration remained “resolute” in its desire to achieve peace.
Witkoff spoke shortly after the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated that “in light of the response delivered by Hamas this morning,” Jerusalem had decided to recall its negotiating team for consultations.
President Donald Trump told reporters on July 25 that Hamas’s obstruction of the negotiations “got to a point where you’re going to have to finish the job.”
In a reference to the Jewish state, Trump said, “So they pulled out [of the negotiations], and they’re going to have to fight. They’re going to have to clean it up. They’re going to have to get rid of [Hamas terrorists].”
