Israeli army will ‘take control' of Gaza City: PM statement
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 statement said.
The statement said the cabinet had adopted five principles for ending the war: the disarming of Hamas; the return of all hostages — living and dead; the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip; Israeli security control in the territory; and the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
'A decisive majority of security cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the security cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages,' the statement added, without giving further details.
As he convened the security cabinet on Thursday, Netanyahu reiterated that Israel aimed to take full control of Gaza but did not intend to govern it.
Nearly two years into the war in Gaza, the Israeli leader faces mounting pressure at home and abroad for a truce deal that would pull the territory's more than two million people back from the brink of famine and help secure the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants.
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