The Israeli government on Wednesday laid out plans to expand its renewed military offensive in the Gaza Strip and seize large parts of the enclave, a strategy that piles more pressure on Hamas and raises concerns about Israel’s plans beyond the war.
The announcement from Israel’s defense minister adds to the growing drumbeat from officials in recent days who have suggested that Israel was shifting tactics to hold on to swaths of the territory, at least temporarily. They have asserted a vision for postwar Gaza in which Palestinians would move elsewhere — an idea vehemently rejected by much of the world.
In the 15-month military campaign that preceded a January truce, Israeli forces stormed Gazan cities before withdrawing, leaving behind vast destruction but allowing Palestinian militants to regroup in the rubble.
In the weeks after the cease-fire took hold, many Gazans also returned home, but Israel resumed its attacks in mid-March.
Now, the Israeli military appears to be planning to station forces in captured territory. The defense minister, Israel Katz, on Wednesday said newly captured areas would be “added to the security zones” that the military currently maintains in Gaza, including a buffer along the enclave’s borders with Egypt and Israel, and much of a key road in the center of the enclave.
He added that the expanding operation involved “wide-scale evacuations of Gaza’s population from combat zones.”
This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also set forth demands for postwar Gaza — all of which are likely to be nonstarters for Hamas. They include Hamas’s laying down its arms, comprehensive Israeli security control in Gaza and what he called voluntary migration for Gazans and that others have condemned as forcible displacement.
“That’s the plan,” Mr. Netanyahu said in remarks distributed by his office on Sunday. “We aren’t hiding this. We’re ready to talk about it at any time.”
It’s unclear whether the recent moves by the Israeli leader and his officials amount to a negotiating strategy with Hamas, or indicate a more comprehensive plan for Gaza. Either way, Israel would face significant pushback, and it is uncertain whether either side could force the other to accept its terms for an agreement through military means.
Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly conditioned the end of the war on the dismantling of Hamas’s military wing and government, but his comments offered a detailed vision of how he thought that could be achieved.
For their part, Hamas officials have rejected ideas calling on them to give up their weapons, send their leaders into exile or accept the depopulation of Gaza. Hamas is demanding an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal in exchange for the release of all the hostages still held in Gaza.
Even if Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza or were forced out, it’s not clear where they would be able to resettle. Arab countries, including neighboring Egypt, have rejected proposals first publicly floated by President Trump to relocate them to their soil, saying that Palestinians must be allowed to remain in their homeland.
The Israeli military resumed its attacks against Hamas in Gaza on March 18 after Israel and Hamas failed to reach an agreement to extend the cease-fire that started in January. More than 1,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the truce’s collapse, according to the Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces struck a United Nations building in the northern city of Jabaliya where several hundred people were sheltering, said Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. The Israeli military said it had attacked Hamas militants hiding inside a “command-and-control” center, without providing evidence.
In his remarks, Mr. Katz did not say how much territory he hoped to capture and hold, or for how long. Since the cease-fire collapsed, Israeli forces have been advancing deeper into the Gaza Strip, including in the southern city of Rafah, though they have not been sweeping through Palestinian cities as they did before the truce. Both sides have been speaking to mediators about a potential deal to halt the fighting — so far without success.
Israeli leaders have said that they could not allow the cease-fire to continue as long as Hamas did not release more of the dozens of remaining hostages held in Gaza. Hamas accused Israel of breaking the January truce.
The Israeli military has issued sweeping evacuation orders for parts of Gaza. More than 140,000 people in the enclave have been displaced since the cease-fire broke down, according to the United Nations. Many were just beginning to resettle into their old neighborhoods across the Gaza Strip before being forced to flee again.
Gaza health officials say that more than 50,000 people have been killed in the enclave since the war began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That attack killed 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage to Gaza. At least 59 hostages remain in the enclave, although about 35 of those are presumed dead, according to the Israeli government.
Adam Rasgon and Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting from Rehovot, Israel.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem. More about Aaron Boxerman
The post Israel Is Expanding Gaza Offensive, Defense Chief Says, Squeezing Hamas appeared first on New York Times.
