“The [Israeli military] will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Netanyahu’s office announced in a statement early on Friday announcing the takeover plan.
Occupying Gaza City marks a major escalation by Israel in its war on the Palestinian territory and will likely result in the forced displacement of tens of thousands of exhausted and starving residents who are experiencing famine conditions as Israel continues to block humanitarian aid from entering the territory.
On Thursday, in advance of the security cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said Israel would “take control of all Gaza”.
In a television interview with US outlet Fox News, Netanyahu also said Israel does not want to be “a governing body” in Gaza and would hand over responsibility to an unspecified third party.
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it,” he added.
Netanyahu’s comments followed reports in Israeli media earlier this week that the Israeli leader would imminently announce plans to fully occupy the entirety of the Gaza Strip.
It is unclear how many people still live in Gaza City, the enclave’s largest population centre before Israel’s war on the territory that has now killed more than 61,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled Gaza City under forced evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military in the opening weeks of the war, but many returned during a brief ceasefire at the start of this year.
A major ground operation in Gaza City could displace many thousands and further disrupt efforts to deliver food to the famine-stricken territory, where almost 200 people have now died from starvation and malnutrition.