Israel already controls around three-quarters of the Strip.
Even the scaled-back plan would defy international calls for a ceasefire when US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration at the starvation of civilians, while nations including France and the United Kingdom have signalled plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu made no comment on a two-state solution with Palestine – named by many countries including Australia as the preferred resolution to the conflict – but set out a sharply different future in which Gaza was managed by Arab states.
Asked if Israel wanted to keep control of Gaza, he told Fox News that was not the Israeli ambition.
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter,” he said in his earlier comments.
“We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.
“We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us, and giving Gazans a good life. That’s not possible with Hamas.”
Hamas had said in a statement that Netanyahu’s remarks that Israel intended to take military control of all of Gaza constituted “a coup” amid the ceasefire negotiations.
Hamas terrorists killed 1195 people in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, while launching more than 4000 rockets into Israeli territory and sending thousands of fighters across the border. Hamas returned to Gaza with 251 hostages. Israel estimates 50 have not been returned.
Israel’s military offensive has killed over 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is linked to Hamas. It does not say how many were fighters or civilians.
The Washington Post earlier reported that the military’s senior leadership, including chief of staff Eyal Zamir, opposed conquering and reoccupying Gaza, according to two former Israeli officials and a person familiar with the prime minister’s decisions.
In a statement on Thursday, Zamir said the military had already “met and even exceeded the operation’s objectives” in Gaza.
World leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have urged Netanyahu to stop the war and allow more food to be distributed to civilians in Gaza, while also condemning Hamas and saying it should not have any role in the future of the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu has accused the three leaders, and others, of appeasing terrorists by preparing to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September.
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In a sharp criticism of Israel on Thursday, European Commission executive vice president Teresa Ribera likened the war in Gaza to a genocide because of the treatment of civilians.
“What we are seeing is a concrete population being targeted, killed and condemned to starve to death,” she told news site Politico.
“A concrete population is confined, with no homes – being destroyed – no food, water or medicines – being forbidden to access – and subject to bombing and shooting even when they are trying to get humanitarian aid.
“If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning.”
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Two major Israeli human rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, last month said the government was engaged in a co-ordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in Gaza.
“In other words: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” they said.
The Netanyahu government has rejected this accusation, and its spokesman, David Mencer, has insisted that the Israel Defence Forces targeted Hamas terrorists, not civilians.
Aid workers and surgeons who have worked in Gaza have given accounts of significant civilian casualties, including at food distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which oversees aid under Israeli control.
with AP, Reuters
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Israeli security cabinet approves plan to take over Gaza City
