Israel Plans Takeover of Gaza City

Israel says it will retake Gaza City, escalating war with Hamas

Israel said it will take over Gaza City, escalating its war with Hamas even as it faces growing international calls to end the 22-month conflict. The plan, announced early Friday local time, stops short of the full occupation of the Gaza Strip that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed in an interview yesterday on Fox News, in which he said that Israelis “intend to” take over the enclave but that he didn’t want to “keep” it long term.

An Israeli offensive could displace tens of thousands of people and could also endanger the remaining hostages held by Hamas.

Israel’s announcement comes as commercial satellite images show Israel’s military building up troops and equipment near the border with Gaza that would support a possible new ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, according to three U.S. officials and a former official who viewed the imagery.

It comes at a tense time in relations between Israel and the U.S. At the end of last month, Netanyahu and President Donald Trump had a private phone conversation that devolved into shouting amid White House concerns over whether the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is working, according to a senior U.S. official, two former U.S. officials and a Western official who were briefed on the matter. The phone call prompted a trip to the region last week by Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, to find a unified path forward in the war.

Asked earlier this week whether he would support Israel’s occupying Gaza, Trump said he is focused on getting people food. As for military occupation, he said, “I really can’t say. That’s going to be pretty much up to Israel.”

Written by Elizabeth Johnson