Updated August 8, 2025 at 8:26 AM EDT
Israel's Security Cabinet approved a proposal early Friday for the military to expand the war in Gaza and take control of Gaza City, one of the last areas of the territory not yet under full military occupation.
The Security Cabinet's meeting ran well into the night in Israel, concluding with an outline for the military to eventually control all of the territory.
The announcement from the prime minister's office comes some 23 months into a war in which Israeli airstrikes and attacks have killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, a third of them children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Gaza City — long the beating heart of Gaza — has been largely destroyed from airstrikes and raids throughout the war. Still, it's home to several of the territory's last partially functioning hospitals, a church where Gaza's minority Christians are sheltering and where tens of thousands of displaced people have set up tent encampments.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office stopped short of describing the takeover of Gaza City as an occupation, though the U.N. says already nearly 90% of Gaza is under military control or off-limits to Palestinians and deemed a red zone. Gaza City, parts of central Gaza and a stretch of sand along the sea are the only areas not yet occupied by Israeli ground forces.
Israeli troops already operate in eastern Gaza City under cover of near-constant airstrikes. It's unclear how the military plans to push farther into densely populated areas — or where people might be forced to flee amid what U.N.-backed experts on hunger say is an unfolding famine in the territory.
In announcing the decision, Netanyahu's office said, without elaborating, that aid would be distributed to civilians outside of combat zones.
In a statement, Hamas said Israel's takeover of Gaza City "will cost it a heavy price and not be a walk in the park."
"Our people and their resistance are resilient to defeat or surrender, and Netanyahu's plans, ambitions, and illusions will fail miserably," the statement read.
Families of Israeli hostages still held by militants in Gaza are demanding a ceasefire, fearing military operations could lead to their deaths.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is being held hostage, said this week Netanyahu had promised her he would strike a deal to end the war and free the hostages.
"But he exploited my pain, the pain of the families of this wounded nation — he sabotaged the deal," she said. "He lied to me — he lied to all of us!"
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the decision as a "disaster that will lead to many more disasters."
"This is exactly what Hamas wanted: for Israel to get stuck on the ground without a goal, without defining the vision for the day after, in a futile occupation that no one understands where it leads," he said in a statement.
Public opinion in Israel is divided over whether to end the war, but this week tens of thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv for a ceasefire. Additionally, hundreds of former generals and security officials in Israel signed an open letter to President Trump, urging him to bring an end to the war and end the suffering. They said Hamas no longer poses a strategic threat to Israel after the group's deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Netanyahu, however, has also resisted mounting global pressure to end the war and dramatically boost aid into Gaza.
When asked this week about possible Israeli plans to militarily occupy all of Gaza, Trump said the decision was "pretty much up to Israel."
The Security Cabinet, comprised of Israel's top leaders, adopted five aims before Israel ends the war: the disarmament of Hamas, the release of all roughly 50 hostages — less than half of whom are believed to be alive — demilitarizing Gaza, Israeli security control in Gaza and establishing a civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
The Security Cabinet's statement did not give any details on what Israeli security control in Gaza would need to look like for Israel to end the war, nor how a civil administration would be formed, what its role would be and who would run it.
The prime minister's office said an alternative plan for military operations in Gaza than the one Netanyahu had presented had been rejected by the Security Cabinet, which includes two far-right ministers who've openly called for the permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and the rebuilding of Jewish settlements there.
Palestinians react to Israel's plan
Mahmoud Abdel Salam Ahmed, a 38 year-old living in Gaza City, says he's preparing to pack his tent and what little food he has and getting ready to flee again.
"This is the worst news I've heard since the war began. The news we heard today shocked us all, and we weren't prepared for a war like this or an operation like this," he says.
At a market in Gaza City, 32-year-old Mohaneb Yahya Al-Sahhar says Israel's planned operation will fail because Gazans have already persevered through hardship.
"The people of Gaza are rooted in the land. Death no longer makes a difference to us," he says. "We, as the society of Gaza, have adapted and lived with displacement, with death, with poverty, with all the difficult circumstances that no one else in the world has experienced — we have lived them and adapted to them."
Ali Al-Hanafi Abu Hassan, a 51-year-old displaced in Gaza City, says it would be impossible to evacuate again. His house was destroyed and two of his children were killed.
"I mean, by God, they didn't leave us with anything. They destroyed everything, including houses, trees, and stones. Where does [Netanyahu] want to send us? We won't leave. Let them just kill us and the story will be over," he says. "There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israel's decision to take over Gaza City.
"This is a complete crime that represents a continuation of the policy of genocide, systematic killing, starvation, and siege, and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and UN resolutions," he said
Israel faces international criticism
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the Israeli government's decision to take control of Gaza City is "wrong" and urged the government reconsider.
"This action will do nothing to bring an end to this conflict or to help secure the release of the hostages. It will only bring more bloodshed," he wrote in a statement. "What we need is a ceasefire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the release of of all hostages by Hamas and a negotiated solution."
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government would not authorize exports of military equipment that Israel could use in Gaza and called for aid organizations to have "comprehensive" access to the territory.
"The German government remains deeply concerned about the ongoing suffering of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. With the planned offensive, the Israeli government bears even greater responsibility than before for providing for their needs," Merz said in a statement.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong criticized the move in a statement.
"Australia calls on Israel to not go down this path, which will only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza," she said. "A two-state solution is the only pathway to secure an enduring peace — a Palestinian state and the State of Israel, living side-by-side in peace and security within internationally-recognised borders."
Meanwhile Francesca Albanese, the U.N.'s special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, called the announcement "shocking."
In an interview with the BBC, she said the decision "speaks to the desperation of the Israeli PM," adding it was "hard to imagine how much harm he [Netanyahu] can do because they [Gazans] are beyond the brink of collapse."
Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, called for the plan to be "immediately halted," adding that it ran contrary to rulings made by the International Courts of Justice about Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, including Gaza.
Turkey's foreign ministry urged the U.N. Security Council to halt Israel's move as a violation of international law.
"We call on the international community to fulfill its responsibilities to prevent the implementation of this plan, which seeks to render Gaza uninhabitable and forcibly displace the Palestinian people from their own lands," the ministry said in a statement.
Anas Baba contributed to this report from Gaza City.
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