Israel Plans Gaza Conquest With or Without Hostage Deal

After 22 months of resisting widespread calls in Israel to end the war in exchange for the release of the hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, the government recently approved plans to take over Gaza City in the Strip’s north, where around a million Gazans have been sheltering. The plan has been criticized internationally amid the worsening humanitarian crisis in the territory, as well as by top security officials who warn it could endanger the remaining hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been framing Gaza City as Hamas’s last stronghold and likening it to the Allied forces needing to conquer Berlin to end World War II, a comparison he also drew in a recent interview. Last year, the premier used the same arguments to drive home the need to take over Rafah.

The interview was apparently conducted as reports swirled that Hamas was on the verge of accepting an American ceasefire proposal accepted in the past by Jerusalem.

Asked by interviewer Sharri Markson about the reports at the time and whether Israel planned to take over all of Gaza and eliminate Hamas even if the terror group agreed to a truce and hostage deal, Netanyahu answered affirmatively.

“We’re going to do that anyway. That there was never a question that we’re not going to leave Hamas there,” he said, adding that the war “could end today” if the terror group “lays down its arms and releases the remaining 50 hostages, at least 20 of which are alive.”

Netanyahu touted growing reports of anti-Hamas sentiment among Gazans, saying his goal, rather than the occupation of Gaza, was “to free Gaza, free them from Hamas tyranny, free Israel and others from Hamas terrorism, give Gaza and Israel a different future.”

Addressing Israel’s fraying ties with Australia, Netanyahu said there has been a “great underlying friendship there for over a century” that has “gone astray because I think leaders did not show the strength and conviction that they should have when we’re actually fighting the war of Western civilization against these barbarians.”

Netanyahu linked a string of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia in recent months to what he called anti-Western extremists using democracies around the world to consume them from within, urging Australians to stand up to this.

“I’ve seen this tsunami of antisemitism, this racism and this deliberate targeting of the innocents, the burning of a synagogue in Melbourne and so on. These are horrible things and if you don’t stop them when they’re small, they get bigger and bigger and bigger and ultimately they consume your society,” he cautioned.

While momentum has mounted toward reaching a hostage release deal, Netanyahu has continued to dismiss such efforts, focusing instead of the plan approved by the cabinet earlier this month to intensify fighting in the Gaza Strip, though he has not outright rejected the latest proposal.

In a statement, Netanyahu said he had instructed the army to “shorten the timelines for seizing the last terror strongholds and for the defeat of Hamas,” referring to the IDF’s upcoming offensive in Gaza City.

Hamas said Israel’s plans to conquer Gaza City showed its “blatant disregard” for the efforts to broker a ceasefire.

“Today’s announcement by the terrorist occupation army of the start of an operation against Gaza City and its nearly one million residents and displaced persons … demonstrates … a blatant disregard for the efforts made by the mediators,” the Palestinian terror group said in a statement.

“Netanyahu’s disregard for the mediators’ proposal … proves that he is the real obstructionist of any agreement,” it further charged, while saying Israel’s planned operation in Gaza City would fail.

Fifty hostages remain held captive in Gaza — 49 of the 251 taken hostage on Oct. 7 and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014. Israeli officials have declared that 28 of them are dead, while 20 are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others.