Netanyahu Says New Gaza Offensive Will Be Intensive After Israel Approves Expanded Operation Against Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a new offensive in Gaza will be an intensive military operation aimed at defeating Hamas, but stopped short of detailing just how much of the enclave’s territory would be seized.

“Population will be moved, for its own protection,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. He said Israeli soldiers won’t go into Gaza, launch raids, and then retreat. “The intention is the opposite of that,” he said.

Netanyahu’s social media post came after his security cabinet on Monday approved an expanded offensive against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in which Israel may seize the Gaza Strip and control aid.

An Israeli defense official said it would not be launched before US President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East.

The decision, after weeks of faltering efforts to agree a ceasefire with Hamas, underlines the prospect that the war could continue with no end in sight.

A government spokesman told journalists online that reserve soldiers were being called up to expand operations in Gaza, not to occupy it.

A report by Israel‘s public broadcaster Kan, citing officials with knowledge of the details, said the new plan was gradual and would take months, with forces focusing first on one area of the battered enclave.

Israeli troops have already taken over an area amounting to around a third of the Gaza Strip, displacing the population and building watchtowers and surveillance posts on cleared ground the military has described as security zones, but the new plan would go further.

One Israeli government official said the newly approved offensive would seize the entire territory of the Gaza Strip, move its civilian population southward, and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas hands.

The defense official said aid distribution, which has been handled by international aid groups and UN organizations, would be transferred to private companies and handed out in the southern area of Rafah once the offensive begins.

The Israeli military, which throughout the war has shown little appetite for occupying Gaza, declined to comment on the remarks by government officials and politicians.

Israel resumed its offensive in March after the collapse of a US-backed ceasefire that had halted fighting for two months. It has since imposed a blockade of aid into the enclave.

The Israeli defense official said that Israel would hold on to security zones seized along the Gaza perimeter because they were vital for protecting Israeli communities around the enclave.

But he said there was a “window of opportunity” for a ceasefire and hostage release deal during a visit by Trump to the region next week.

“If there is no hostage deal, Operation “Gideon Chariots” will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its goals are achieved,” he said.

Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi rejected what he called “pressure and blackmail.”

“No deal except a comprehensive one, which includes a complete ceasefire, full withdrawal from Gaza, reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, and the release of all prisoners from both sides,” he said.

Israel has yet to present a clear vision for post-war Gaza after a campaign that has displaced most of the enclave’s population and left it depending on aid supplies that have been dwindling since the blockade.

Experts and Israeli officials have long said that Hamas steals much of the aid to fuel its terrorist operations and sells some of the remainder to Gaza’s civilian population at an increased price. Ministers have also said that aid distribution cannot be left to international organizations, which it accuses of allowing Hamas to seize supplies intended for the civilian population.

Instead, officials have looked at plans for private contractors to handle distribution, through what the United Nations has described as Israeli hubs.

On Monday, Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on X that Israel was demanding that the UN and non-governmental organizations shut down their aid distribution system in Gaza.

However, the decision to expand the operation was immediately hailed by Israeli government hardliners who have long pressed for a full takeover of the Gaza Strip by Israel and a permanent displacement of the population, along the line of the “Riviera” plans outlined by Trump in February.

“We are finally going to conquer Gaza. We are no longer afraid of the word ‘occupation’,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a pro-settler conference in an online discussion.

However, with Israel facing threats from the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who on Sunday fired a missile that hit close to Ben Gurion Airport, an unstable Syria next door, and a volatile situation in the West Bank, the capacity for prolonged military operations faces constraints.

Israel‘s Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said on Sunday that the military has already begun issuing tens of thousands of call-up orders for its reserve forces, looking to expand the Gaza campaign.

Zamir, who took office in March, has pushed back against calls by government hardliners who want to choke off aid entirely and has told ministers aid must be let in soon, according to Kan.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 taken hostage into Gaza in the deadliest day for Israel in its history.

Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hama’s military and governing capabilities in Gaza.

Up to 24 of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be alive. Families fear that the fighting will endanger their loved ones while critics say Israel risks being drawn into a long guerrilla war with limited gains and no clear strategy.

Successive surveys have shown dwindling public support for the war among Israelis, many of whom prefer to see a ceasefire deal reached and more hostages released.

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