Netanyahu Approves Gaza City Takeover Plan, Renewed Hostage Negotiations

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Aug. 21 announced he’s giving final approval for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) proposal to take control of Gaza City, and had also approved renewed negotiations to free Israeli hostages held by terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and bring the state of armed conflict there to a close.

“We’re at the decisive stage. I came today to the Gaza Division in order to approve the plans that the IDF presented to me and to the defense minister for taking control of Gaza City and defeating Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a recorded statement.

Netanyahu’s cabinet has, for several days, been deliberating a proposal for the takeover of Gaza City, located toward the northern end of the Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli military announced it had already begun preliminary operations for the Gaza City takeover. The day prior, the Israeli military announced it had begun mobilizing 60,000 reserve Israeli troops and had extended the periods of service of another 20,000 Israeli reservists.

“I greatly appreciate the mobilization of the reserve soldiers and, of course, the regular Army, for this essential cause,” Netanyahu said on Thursday.

In addition to approving the Gaza City takeover, Netanyahu said he had also authorized “immediate negotiations for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war.”

Hamas terrorists took some 251 people as hostages during their deadly attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and dozens of those hostages remain in Hamas captivity, along with the remains of others killed in the course of the nearly two-year conflict.

Earlier this week, mediator Qatar announced that Hamas had agreed to a proposal for a 60-day cease-fire, to facilitate the release of a limited number of hostages, in exchange for some Palestinians held in Israeli custody.

Qatari Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari said the limited cease-fire plan Hamas agreed to would fulfill 98 percent of a proposal that Israel had previously approved.

In an Aug. 10 speech, Netanyahu said the Gaza City takeover plan is not part of an indefinite Israeli occupation. At the same time, he indicated the plan is for Israel to have “overriding security responsibilities” for the territory, along with a “non-Israeli, peaceful civil administration.”

Netanyahu said Gaza’s post-Hamas civil authority is one that “doesn’t educate its children for terror, doesn’t pay terrorists, and doesn’t launch terrorist attacks against Israel.” Netanyahu said these terms would disqualify the Palestinian Authority—which has partial governing authority in the West Bank—from stepping in as Gaza’s eventual civil authority.