Israel’s security cabinet has approved the plans of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that the Israeli army occupies the city of Gaza, in an expansion of military operations that occurs in the midst of the international condemnation of the deteriorated humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
The decision, announced in a statement from the Prime Minister’s office, occurred after a marathon meeting of the cabinet that lasted several hours that extended until the early hours of Friday in Israel.
“The security cabinet has approved the proposal of the Prime Minister for the defeat of Hamas,” said the office of the Israeli Prime Minister in the statement. “The IDF will prepare for the acquisition of the city of Gaza while guaranteeing the provision of humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat areas.”
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaks during an event at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in Jerusalem on July 27, 2025.
Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP through Getty Images
In the statement, the prime minister’s office said the security cabinet, with a majority vote, also adopted five principles to end the war with Hamas, which included “Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip.”
The other principles were:
- Disassembling Hamas
- Returning to all hostages, including the bodies of which they have died
- The demilitarization of the gaza strip; and
- Establish an alternative civil administration that is not Hamas or the Palestinian authority
The declaration of the prime minister’s office said that a “decisive majority” of the ministers in the security cabinet believed that an un specified alternative plan that was also considered “would not achieve the defeat of Hamas or the return of the hostages.”
Before the security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said in a Fox News interview on Thursday that Israel “intends to” take control of everything Gaza, but “we don’t want to keep or govern it,” he said.
He added: “We do not want to be there as a governing body. We want to deliver it to the Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening and giving the Gazios a good life. That is not possible with Hamas.”
Netanyahu said in the interview that he has not argued Israel occupying the entire Gaza with President Donald Trump.
“He understands that it is Israel who is going to fight. They are not American soldiers,” Netanyahu told Fox when asked if Trump has given him the green light to occupy all Gaza.
“Well, he just says: ‘I know that Israel is going to do what he is going to do’, and we have not entered that kind of discussion,” said Netanyahu.
A vehicle that fights the Israeli army infantry leaves a cloud of dust while moving in a position along the southern border of Israel with the Gaza strip on August 5, 2025.
AFP through Getty Images
In response to Netanyahu’s comments about Fox, Hamas said that Prime Minister’s comments revealed the true reason why Israel withdrew from negotiations to reach a high fire agreement.
“Netanyahu’s statements represent a flagrant investment of the negotiation process and clearly expose the real reasons behind their withdrawal of the last round of conversations, although we approach a final agreement,” Hamas said in a statement.
“Netanyahu’s plans to intensify the aggression confirm, without any doubt, that he is trying to get rid of his captives and sacrifice them at the service of their personal interests and extremist ideological agenda,” Hamas continued.
The protesters have torches, during a protest outside the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to demand the immediate release of the hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023, attack against Israel by Hamas, and the end of the war, in Jerusalem, on August 7, 2025.
Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Before the decision was announced, the Hostage Families Forum requested that the Israeli cabinet return to the negotiations and reach an agreement that would bring to the remaining hostages home.
“We are appealing to the cabinet (the expansion of fighting is a danger of death and immediate disappearance for our loved ones, look at us in the eye when you choose to sacrifice them,” said the forum of hostage families in a statement.
Two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News earlier this week that Netanyahu had decided to propose that the IDF advanced with a plan to conquer and occupy the Palestinian territory completely.
Netanyahu celebrated a three -hour limited security cabinet meeting where the matter was discussed, according to a reading of the Prime Minister’s office.
“The IDF are prepared to implement any decision made by the Political Safety Cabinet,” the reading said.
In this photo taken from a position on the Israeli border with Gaza’s strip, a rocket shot from the gaza strip leaves a trace of smoke on August 7, 2025.
Jack Guez/AFP through Getty Images
On Sunday, an Israeli official told ABC News that Netanyahu was pressing to expand the military operation in Gaza on the argument that he felt that Hamas is not interested in reaching a new agreement under which they could be released.
When asked about the possible expansion of the campaign in Gaza, the spokesman for the United States Department of the United States, Tammy Bruce, said Tuesday: “Informing is one thing. The real plans could be another. We are not in the business of interpreting statements of foreign governments when and if they are made.”
“We are still focused on releasing the hostages, including the remains of two Americans, and ensuring that Hamas never governs Gaza again,” Bruce said.
Joe Simonetti and Jack Moore of ABC News contributed to this report.
