Israel’s security cabinet has unanimously approved a plan to expand military operations in Gaza and to call up tens of thousands of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists.
The expanded military campaign will entail seizing territory in Gaza and remaining there; moving the Gazan population south, denying Hamas the ability to distribute humanitarian supplies and carrying out powerful strikes against militants.
Far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich said the cabinet decided Israel will not retreat from territory captured in Gaza, “not even for a hostage deal.”
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza at the beginning of March preventing humanitarian supplies reaching the beleaguered population two weeks before it renewed its military onslaught. But the pressure failed to force Hamas to agree to release more hostages.
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Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the new plan was different from previous plans in that it reflected a shift away from the former tactic of repeated raids and called instead for conquering swathes of territory and maintaining a military presence in them.
This would allow Israel to achieve both of its war objectives, he said: defeating Hamas and securing the hostages’ release.
A senior security official said the expanded military operation will not begin before US president Donald Trump concludes his mid-May visit to the region. Security cabinet member Zeev Elkin said there was “still a window of opportunity” for a new hostage release deal before the end of Mr Trump’s trip “if Hamas understands we are serious”.
Most IDF reservists are already exhausted after having spent hundreds of days in uniform since the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023. Some have already been called for reserve duty four or five times since then, leaving their families, jobs or studies for months on end.
It is expected that many will be sent to the northern borders with Lebanon or Syria or to the occupied West Bank, to replace regular standing army soldiers who will be transferred to Gaza.
With the humanitarian situation in Gaza becoming increasingly desperate, the security cabinet also gave preliminary approval for a mechanism for delivering humanitarian aid through an American international fund, in order to prevent it from reaching Hamas. IDF chief of staff Lt Gen Zamir told ministers in no uncertain terms that Israeli troops will not distribute the aid.
Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir opposed the aid distribution plan. “I don’t understand why we need to give them humanitarian aid. They have enough food. We should bomb Hamas’s food supplies,” he said.
The UN and other aid agencies criticised the proposal, terming it a breach of basic humanitarian principles, adding they would not co-operate.
Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior Hamas official, said the group rejected partial agreements that do not end the war. “We want a solution that will stop the killing. The partial paths and fragmented deals, which only lead back to war and to the application of dishonest pressure tactics, are paths we will not return to,” he said.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement accusing the Israeli government of abandoning the fate of the remaining 59 hostages, of whom up to 24 are still believed to be alive.
“The operation that was approved ought to be named the Smotrich-Netanyahu plan for giving up on the hostages and for forsaking Israel’s national and security resilience,” the group said, accusing the government of choosing land over the hostages.
More than 52,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, while 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage in the October 7th Hamas attack.
