Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel defended on Sunday his government’s plan to launch a renewed offensive against Hamas in parts of Gaza, following a wave of international condemnation from traditional allies and critics at home.
The Israeli military was preparing to expand its campaign to central Gaza as well as Gaza City, Mr. Netanyahu told reporters at a news conference in Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter in those areas, hoping they would be safer.
Mr. Netanyahu’s proposal has drawn fierce criticism from the families of Israeli hostages, who fear their loved ones will be killed in the Israeli assault. The country’s leaders also overruled the objections of Israeli military leaders, who had raised concerns over the exhaustion among their soldiers.
“Given Hamas’s refusal to lay down its arms, Israel has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas,” said Mr. Netanyahu. “Dismantling the two remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza City and the central camps — this is the best way to end the war.”
On Friday, the Israeli government announced that the security cabinet — a group of senior ministers led by Mr. Netanyahu — had approved a plan for the military to prepare to take control of Gaza City. Those preparations could take weeks or months, potentially leaving open options for a diplomatic maneuver that would halt or reverse the military operation.
But the decision quickly spurred anger abroad, where Israel is increasingly blamed for the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Aid agencies and European countries have blamed Israeli restrictions on aid, as well as a contentious new Israeli-backed relief distribution system, for helping cause severe hunger in Gaza.
For Israelis and Palestinians alike, Mr. Netanyahu’s argument that Israeli forces needed to invade Hamas’s final strongholds was almost painfully familiar. In February 2024, Mr. Netanyahu identified another Gazan city — Rafah — as “Hamas’s last bastion.” At the time, he said victory was “within reach.”
The war has continued almost unabated since then, killing more than 60,000 people in Gaza in total, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Hamas triggered the fighting on Oct. 7, 2023, with a massive attack that killed about 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage back to Gaza.
Asked about who might rule Gaza after Hamas’s defeat, Mr. Netanyahu said it would be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. But he declined to say who might step into the vacuum, adding that it was too soon to tell.
“No one’s going to go in there unless we finish Hamas,” he said.
Relatives of the hostages and of victims of the Hamas-led October 2023 attack have called on Israeli businesses and workers to go on strike on Aug. 17, aiming to shut down the economy to protest the cabinet decision.
But some hard-line members of Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition lashed out against the planned military offensive, saying it was too timid to decisively rout Hamas.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s hard-line finance minister, said in a video statement on Saturday night that he did not support the decision. He called on Mr. Netanyahu to reconvene the security cabinet and pledge to go for a “sharp, clear path” to a decisive victory over Hamas with “no more stops in the middle.”
The comments by Mr. Smotrich could again threaten the stability of Mr. Netanyahu’s fragile coalition government. Mr. Smotrich and another right-wing minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, have vowed to quit if Mr. Netanyahu relents on his tough line on Gaza and Hamas.
Mr. Smotrich said Mr. Netanyahu had assured him of “a dramatic plan” to defeat Hamas by means of a “lightning-fast military victory.”
But Mr. Netanyahu had done an “about face,” he said, and along with the cabinet had “decided once again to do more of the same: launching a military operation that is not aimed at resolving the issue.” Instead, Mr. Smotrich added, the new plan’s objective was to pressure Hamas to agree to a partial deal that would usher in a temporary cease-fire and see hostages being held in Gaza exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israel.
The cabinet set a deadline of Oct. 7 for the military to complete the evacuation southward of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian residents of Gaza City, before any military push into the city, according to an Israeli official speaking on the condition of anonymity to share details of the confidential discussion.
It will also take time for the military to call up enough reserve forces to carry out the mission, and the details of the plan could still change.
Mr. Smotrich has been pressing for Israel to impose sovereignty in Gaza and pave the way for renewed Jewish settlement there, 20 years after Israel withdrew its forces and evacuated all of its settlers from the enclave.
The risk for Mr. Netanyahu is that his latest plan could cost the lives of many more Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, while also endangering the 20 hostages believed to still be alive.
Mr. Smotrich said that if Hamas agreed to a deal, Israel would “retreat once again” and allow the militant group to recover and to rearm. He stopped short of saying he would resign but said he had “lost faith” in Mr. Netanyahu.
Although Mr. Ben-Gvir, the leader of another far-right party Mr. Netanyahu relies on for support, is as far right as Mr. Smotrich, he praised Mr. Netanyahu’s plan to conquer all of Gaza City, saying it would displace one million Palestinians.
Myra Noveck and Lia Lapidot contributed reporting.
Isabel Kershner, a Times correspondent in Jerusalem, has been reporting on Israeli and Palestinian affairs since 1990.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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