‘HAMAS rejects Israel’s Gaza conquest threats’, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi declared yesterday after Israel announced plans for the ‘conquest’ and indefinite occupation of the Palestinian territory.
Mardawi said the Movement would only accept a deal with Israel that includes a comprehensive ceasefire and the complete withdrawal from Gaza.
‘Our people have no choice but to achieve a comprehensive deal that guarantees security and safety for our people,’ he said, adding that any Israeli efforts to achieve concessions through threats or mass killings would fail.
A senior Israeli defence official claimed yesterday that there is ‘a window of opportunity’ for a hostage deal in Gaza during US President Trump’s visit to the region next week, but that otherwise Israel would begin its new operation in the enclave.
‘If there is no hostage deal, “Operation Gideon Chariots” will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its goals are achieved,’ he said.
On Sunday night, Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet unanimously approved plans to call up 60,000 reservists and put the military in charge of food and other rationing to the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
The plans include, among other things, ‘the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories, moving the Gaza population south for their protection,’ according to the cabinet meeting reports.
Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that the plan is ‘sacrificing’ those still held in the Palestinian territory.
Violent confrontations erupted during the cabinet meeting between the political and military echelons.
Army chief Eyal Zamir warned that Israel could ‘lose’ the captives in Gaza if it pushed ahead with a full-blown military offensive.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that, as Israel has done in the past two months, it should continue to block all food, water, medicine, fuel and other aid from entering Gaza to starve the population.
He advocated ‘bombing food warehouses and generators’ so there are no more supplies and electricity is fully cut off.
Zamir responded that this would ‘endanger’ Israel as it would expose the country to even more allegations of violations of international law.
‘You don’t understand what you are saying. You are endangering us all. There is an international law, we are committed to it. We cannot starve the Strip, your statements are dangerous,’ Samir said, according to Israel’s national broadcaster, Kan.
In an interview with Israeli Army Radio, opposition leader Yair Lapid questioned Netanyahu’s decision to mobilise tens of thousands of reservists, saying he was calling up troops and extending their service – without setting a goal for the operation.
Another opposition figure, Yair Golan, said Netanyahu was only trying to save his government from collapsing as the plan ‘serves no security purpose and does not bring the release of the hostages closer.’
Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said: ‘We cannot and will not do something which is fundamentally against humanitarian principles,’ noting that ‘the United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have said “no” to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military.’
The Israeli plan comes as Israel’s blockade of all food deliveries enters its ninth week.