Israel’s military will “take control” of Gaza City under a plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and approved by his security cabinet, his office said in a statement Friday, August 8th.
Under the plan to defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army “will prepare to take control of Gaza City while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside combat zones,” the premier’s office said.
He told U.S. network Fox News on Thursday, August 7th, that the military would seize complete control of the territory, where it has been fighting Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
His office on Friday said a majority of the security cabinet had adopted “five principles” aimed at ending the war: “the disarming of Hamas; the return of all hostages—living and dead; the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip; the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.”
Unsurprisingly, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer reacted by saying that Israel’s decision to take control of Gaza is “a mistake” and called on the government in Jerusalem to rethink its decision.
“This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed,” Starmer said in a statement.
