Thursday night’s security cabinet decision to approve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to expand military operations and occupy Gaza City represents a pivotal turning point in Israel’s approach to the ongoing war.
The government frames the plan as the blueprint to defeat Hamas. Detractors, of which there are many, posit that even if that’s true, it may also sentence many of the 20 or so living hostages to death or condemn them to many more months in captivity.
The cabinet’s approval came despite explicit warnings from military officials, including objections from IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir, who warned, “Everything will be complex; I suggest that you remove the return of the hostages from the military objectives.”
This comes from Israel’s top military leadership, who understand better than anyone that this plan effectively abandons hostage rescue as a viable objective – even though it is one of the stated goals.
The plan approved by the security cabinet marks a significant tactical shift, accompanied by five principles for ending the war: disarming Hamas, returning all hostages both living and murdered, demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, maintaining Israeli security control over Gaza, and establishing a civilian government controlled by neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.
The IDF has been in Gaza City before. It has decimated much of the Strip in its stated twin war goals of defeating Hamas and returning the hostages. So if the hostages haven’t been rescued until now, why should returning and upping the stakes suddenly reveal a change of fortune?
Recent videos showing the emaciated Israeli hostages have horrified the nation and underscored the hell they are in. Every day in Hamas captivity brings our citizens closer to death through neglect, abuse, or deliberate murder. An expanded military operation that could drag on for months represents a death sentence for hostages whose health is already compromised.
The cabinet’s decision also ignores the documented strain on Israel’s military after nearly two years of continuous fighting. Military officials have warned that full occupation would exhaust reservists who have already deployed multiple times, stretching Israel’s defense capabilities thin.
This overextension could compromise Israel’s security on multiple fronts while failing to achieve the primary objective that should guide all military decisions: bringing our people home.
Consider the first principle – disarming Hamas completely. This requires Israel to hunt down every remaining leader of Hamas, and destroy enough of the terror group’s weapons caches and tunnels, all in the next few months. It hasn’t been accomplished in two years.
Demilitarizing Gaza entirely, the third principle, similarly means rooting out an organization that has spent decades embedding itself in civilian infrastructure. This process, by definition, brings intense combat directly to areas where hostages are most likely held. Hamas’s rational response is to execute hostages before Israeli forces can reach them, eliminating evidence and witnesses while maximizing Israel’s psychological trauma.
The fourth principle – maintaining permanent Israeli security control – signals to Hamas that a negotiated settlement is no longer possible, due to the group’s constant refusals. Why would Hamas then preserve hostages as bargaining chips when Israel has announced its intention to maintain indefinite military control?
The message of the fifth principle – that there will be no political solution that allows Hamas or its supporters to retain any authority – makes hostage execution not just tactically logical for Hamas, but strategically likely.
The mathematics of this situation is grim. Hamas has demonstrated repeatedly that when faced with existential pressure, it does not hesitate to murder hostages rather than surrender them.
Condemnation of the cabinet decision
“We appeal to the cabinet,” said Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest. “Escalating the fighting is a death sentence and the immediate disappearance of our loved ones,” she explained.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid similarly condemned the plan, posting, “What Netanyahu is offering is more war, more dead hostages, more ‘cleared for publication’ notices.”
After two years of war and death, there is good reason to oppose the decision made on Thursday night. First and foremost is freeing the hostages. They are out of time.
The government insists it can eliminate Hamas and rescue the hostages, but its actions suggest it has made a choice to prioritize the former over the latter. It could be a fatal one.