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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel declared on Monday that his country is \u201con the eve of a forceful entry to Gaza\u201d after his security cabinet approved a new plan for tens of thousands of additional soldiers to seize and hold territory in the embattled enclave and relocate Palestinians to the south.<\/p>\n
In video posted to social media as military reservists across Israel began receiving notices of their call-up, Mr. Netanyahu said that the country\u2019s top military officials had recommended what he called an \u201cintensive\u201d escalation of the 18-month war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to launch the concluding moves,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said the military officials told him, adding that the new campaign would help bring home the hostages still being held in Gaza. The prime minister said he believes \u201cwe are not done. We are before the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n
The escalation followed more than two months in which Israel continued to blockade and bombard the Gaza Strip as cease-fire talks to free the remaining hostages ground to a near standstill. Israel has barred any humanitarian aid to Gaza in an effort to press Hamas to surrender, leading aid groups to denounce mounting deprivation among Palestinians there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s opponents quickly criticized the expanded military campaign, saying it would endanger the remaining hostages\u2019 lives and would not fundamentally change the dynamic that 18 months of war has wrought. The prime minister\u2019s critics \u2014 both inside and outside the country \u2014 have urged him to bring to an end a conflict that began when Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and took some 250 hostage.<\/p>\n
Israeli officials said the offensive would start slowly in anticipation of cease-fire negotiations that are ongoing ahead of President Trump\u2019s trip next week to the region for meetings in several Arab capitals. But the officials said that if a deal is not reached soon, the expanded ground operation would commence in earnest.<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu vowed in the video that the decision to ramp up the fighting in Gaza does not mean Israel has abandoned hope for rescuing the remaining hostages.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not give up on anyone,\u201d he vowed.<\/p>\n
David Mencer, a government spokesman, described the plan as a renewed effort to increase pressure on Hamas to release the hostages and to destroy all of Hamas\u2019s infrastructure, both above and below ground. He said the campaign calls for the \u201cholding of territories\u201d by Israeli soldiers for an indefinite period of time \u201cto prevent Hamas from taking it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Mencer said the intent was not a permanent occupation of Gaza, a scenario that would almost certainly spur international objections, as would the forced relocation of Palestinians from their homes in the north.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Effie Defrin, the Israeli military spokesman, said in a televised statement that Israel\u2019s operation will include \u201ca wide attack, involving moving most of Gaza\u2019s population. This is for their protection in an area clean of Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the White House, Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, did not comment directly on the Israeli announcement, but he said that Mr. Trump \u201cremains committed to securing the immediate release of hostages and an end to Hamas rule in Gaza.\u201d He added, \u201cHamas bears sole responsibility for this conflict and for the resumption of hostilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it was not clear how much of the announcement was primarily designed as a public display of action by Mr. Netanyahu after a cease-fire collapsed in March. The Israeli call-up of soldiers is seen as a message to Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s hard-line supporters, some of whom were dismayed that the military had not completed the task of eradicating Hamas. Promising a more intense phase of the war could be good domestic politics for him. <\/p>\n
It is also not obvious how additional fighters would fundamentally alter a dynamic seen over 18 months of war in which hundreds of thousands of soldiers have pummeled Hamas fighters<\/a>, with residents in Gaza<\/a> caught in the middle, but have failed to achieve Israel\u2019s goals of destroying the militant group or releasing all hostages.<\/p>\n As part of the Israeli offensive, Israel would move \u201cthe Gazan population south for its own defense,\u201d Mr. Mencer said. The plan echoed Israel\u2019s actions earlier in the war, when Israel ordered a mass evacuation of northern Gaza before its ground invasion in late 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational planning, said the understanding was that the Israeli military would move to capture more territory beyond what it was already holding, but the official cautioned that it was not clear whether Israel had plans to occupy all of Gaza at this point.<\/p>\n The cabinet also approved a new Israeli-backed mechanism for allowing the distribution of humanitarian help, he said. Israel has been criticized for its decision more than two months ago to block all humanitarian aid, including food, medicine and fuel, the effect of which has been \u201ccatastrophic,<\/a>\u201d doctors say. Israel has argued that the blockade of aid is lawful and that Gaza still has enough available provisions.<\/p>\n Two reservists who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make comments to the news media said that they had received call-up orders beginning in June.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Eli Cohen, Israel\u2019s energy minister and a member of the security cabinet, said that the reservists were called up in order to implement a plan that would ensure Hamas could never again launch attacks against Israel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe destruction of the terrorist organization Hamas is not only an Israeli interest but also an interest of the entire free world,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthe cabinet unanimously decided to expand the operation in Gaza and move now toward defeating Hamas.\u201d<\/p>\n The question is whether a return to that kind of fighting is a road map to the end of hostilities or merely an intensification of a deadly conflict with worsening consequences for Palestinians and the Israeli hostages still being held<\/a> by Hamas.<\/p>\n Tamir Hayman, who served as the Israeli military\u2019s intelligence chief for four years, said the attempts to pressure Hamas with overwhelming force had been \u201cexhausted\u201d after more than a year and a half of war.<\/p>\n \u201cEliminating Hamas as a terror organization by military force only is very difficult,\u201d said Mr. Hayman, who is now executive director of the Institute for National Security Studies, a think tank in Tel Aviv. He said Israel would be better off ending the war with Hamas, which has been weakened significantly and can be kept in check after the fighting ends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Israeli military has not provided details about how the reservists will be deployed. But two Israeli officials, who requested anonymity to comment on military plans, say it will involve several brigades seeking so-called operational superiority in several parts of Gaza.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Trump administration has sought a new cease-fire, but Hamas has demanded an end to the war and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, while Israel has insisted that Hamas disarm, which the group has refused to do.<\/p>\n