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ACCORDING TO MULTIPLE Israeli news sources, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering ordering a full military occupation of the Gaza Strip in Palestine.
Israel has been waging war on the besieged territory since October 2023 and killed more than 60,000 people in the process, most of them women and children.
Despite mounting global pressure on the Israeli government to reach a ceasefire agreement with Hamas, and the outrage provoked by images of starving children featured on the front pages of newspapers around the world, Netanyahu appears undeterred and is reportedly planning to escalate the assault on Gaza even further.
So, what would the military occupation of Gaza look like?
So far, Netanyahu has not officially ordered the military to fully occupy Gaza, but Israeli news outlets have reported his intention to do so, something that would appease the extremist members of his coalition government.
It would also prolong the military operation in Gaza, and therefore the survival of his coalition and his premiership.
However, he is being met with opposition from senior military officers, most notably the army’s chief of staff Eyal Zamir, who yesterday presented alternatives to full military occupation.
Gaza had already been under a complete blockade by Israel long before the Hamas-led attack of October 2023.
After Hamas won an election there in 2006, Israel blockaded Gaza, restricting the movement of people and goods in and out of the territory. This amounted to a de facto occupation, but without Israeli troops being present inside the Gaza Strip.
A full military occupation of Gaza would see Israeli soldiers posted throughout the territory, as they are in much of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, a part of Palestine that has been occupied since 1967. The International Court of Justice ruled last year that Israel’s occupation is illegal under international law.
It could also pave the way for the establishment of Israeli settlements (colonies) inside Gaza, which is the aim of far-right government members like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Interior Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has said that total occupation would take one or two years to achieve.
For the people of Gaza, the specific results of a full military occupation are unclear, but Netanyahu has endorsed US President Donald Trump’s proposal to “clear out” the Palestinian population and turn the Strip into a “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Aside from that extreme scenario, the evidence from Israel’s decades-long occupation of the rest of Palestine shows that illegal settlements would likely be established and that the local population would face restrictions on movement, as well as the demolition of what’s left of their homes.
A side from the question of total occupation, widening of the war “would risk catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinians and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza,” Miroslav Jenca, UN assistant secretary-general for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, told a Security Council meeting.
“There is no military solution to the conflict in Gaza or the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Jenca said.
While the far-right elements of the coalition government have consistently voiced their wish to completely occupy Gaza, senior Israeli military officials are reportedly opposed to it.
They fear it would further endanger the remaining Israeli hostages and that it would strain military resources, which are already under severe pressure.
Netanyahu held a three-hour meeting with security chiefs yesterday to discuss options for the continuation of the war, his office said in a statement.
At the meeting, chief of staff Zamir warned that a full occupation would be like “walking into a trap,” according to public broadcaster KAN.
The army chief suggested alternatives to a full occupation, such as an encirclement of specific areas where Hamas is believed to be hunkering down, according to the Channel 12 broadcaster.
But Defence Minister Israel Katz hit back with a clear message that served as evidence of the divided opinion in yesterday’s meeting.
“It is the right and duty of the Chief of Staff to express his position in the appropriate forums,” he wrote on X.
“But once decisions are made by the political echelon, the IDF will execute them with determination and professionalism… until the objectives of the war are achieved,” he added, using an acronym for the Israeli military.
Haaretz reported today that many of the Israeli soldiers who have fought in Gaza are burnt out, and that a full occupation would require the call-up of more reservists.
“At a time when the number of reservists showing up for duty has fallen steeply, as has conscript soldiers’ motivation, the army could struggle finding the troops needed for a full occupation,” the newspaper reported.
With reporting from AFP
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