Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated on Sunday that he ordered the Israel Defense Forces to shorten its time frame for seizing Gaza City, an operation that will reportedly take up to five months.
Netanyahu defended the new offensive after it sparked major backlash in the days since the plan’s approval.
“I am determined to end the war with our victory, and precisely because I am aware of the great effort of our reservists, I want to end the war as quickly as possible. That is why I have instructed the IDF to shorten the timetable for taking control of Gaza City,” he told reporters at a press conference. “I do not intend to perpetuate Hamas — I intend to defeat Hamas.”
The prime minister reiterated that his plan is not to occupy Gaza indefinitely but to free the Palestinian territory from Hamas terrorists.
On Friday, the Israeli Security Cabinet unanimously approved the operation to take control of Gaza City. The decision came hours after Netanyahu talked about the prospect in an interview.
Israel intends to take control of Gaza but does not want to keep or govern the territory, the prime minister told Fox News. Rather, he said Israel wants to give it over to “Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us.”
The operation is part of Netanyahu’s goal to free the remaining 50 Israeli hostages left in Gaza and to obliterate Hamas. More than half of the hostages are believed to be dead.
Israeli soldiers were expected to surround Gaza City for three months before an additional two months of assuming control of central Gaza’s camps and eliminating Hamas, according to Israeli media reports cited by the United Nations. Following Netanyahu’s latest remarks, it’s unclear how long the operation will last now.
The prime minister declined to disclose specific details but said the goals of the shortened time frame include demilitarizing Gaza, letting the Israeli military exert “overriding security control,” and having a non-Israeli civilian administration in charge of the transitory government.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT ISRAEL’S PLAN TO TAKE CONTROL OF GAZA CITY
Additionally, some 800,000 Palestinians would be displaced from the city due to the Israeli military’s operation.
On Sunday, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss Israel’s new offensive as the hunger crisis in Gaza remains at the top of the global body’s concerns. Netanyahu has denied that Israel has a policy in place that calls for the starvation of Palestinians, decrying the allegations as “Hamas propaganda.”
