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Pledging to defeat Hamas once and for all, the Israeli government on Friday announced plans to launch a military assault on Gaza City, the strip鈥檚 largest population center. This expansion of Israel鈥檚 22-month war has met with opposition from the army鈥檚 top brass and from many citizens who fear it will endanger the lives of Israeli hostages.

After a 10-hour gathering of his security Cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Israel 鈥渨ill prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones.鈥�

The decision, ending a meeting that stretched almost until dawn, is likely to spark strong international and domestic backlash, amid widespread calls in both arenas for a speedy end to the war in Gaza.

The ministers also released what they called five principles to be met by war鈥檚 end: Hamas鈥檚 disarmament, the return of all hostages, Gaza鈥檚 demilitarization, ongoing Israeli security control of Gaza, and a postwar civilian government that excludes both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

鈥淚t is a disaster that will lead to many more disasters,鈥� Yair Lapid, head of the parliamentary opposition, said in a public statement. The most radical members of the Cabinet had 鈥渄ragged Netanyahu into a move that will take months, lead to the deaths of the hostages and the killing of many soldiers, and a diplomatic breakdown,鈥� he added.

鈥淭his is exactly the result Hamas wanted: an occupation without a goal and without a plan for the day after,鈥� he worried.聽

Where will Gaza City residents go?

In an apparent response to mounting public pressure, the new plan stopped short of the broader operation that Mr. Netanyahu had advocated, which would have seen Israel take full control of the entire Gaza Strip.

The embattled coastal enclave already lies largely in ruins, the majority of its people repeatedly displaced by the fighting, and in the midst of a hunger crisis and humanitarian disaster that could be exacerbated by expanded fighting.

Israel already controls around 75% of the territory, but it has yet to launch a full ground operation in Gaza City, currently home to an estimated 800,000 people.

According to Israeli media reports, the new plan would require an evacuation of this population to the south of the city. But with tent camps for the displaced already overcrowded, it is unclear how practical the plan is.

Some analysts have suggested the looming operation is meant as warning to Hamas to capitulate in currently stalled cease-fire negotiations. Others point to long-standing statements by far-right members of the Cabinet 鈥� National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Both leading members of the Jewish settler movement, they are key to Mr. Netanyahu鈥檚 parliamentary majority. They have been pressing for full occupation of the Gaza Strip since shortly after the war began after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel.

After nearly two years of war, Hamas has been greatly diminished as a fighting force, but the Israeli military believes that the radical Islamic group still has some 20,000 militants operational, most of them hiding within the population in Gaza City and other parts of Gaza not yet held by Israeli troops. Those are also the areas where the surviving Israeli hostages are believed to still be in captivity.

Israeli army worries

One of the military鈥檚 major concerns, says a senior Israeli army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, is that both its enlisted and reserve soldiers are exhausted after fighting in what has become Israel鈥檚 longest active war to date, one that has become a war of attrition.

鈥淲e are not Russia, we are not the United States. We are a small country with a lack of resources, most importantly human resources,鈥� he says. 鈥淲ith our soldiers exhausted, we can make mistakes both in battle and in terms of decisions made by our commanders. This has an impact on morale and the desire to keep fighting or not, and army leaders fear it could lead to a major rupture in the army.鈥�

On the political front, the new move is 鈥減art of plan to completely occupy Gaza and lay the groundwork for Jewish settlement there,鈥� suggests Dahlia Scheindlin, a political strategist and public opinion expert who lives in Tel Aviv.

Seventy-four percent of Israelis want the war to end immediately with a release of all hostages, a poll conducted by Israel's Channel 12 found last month.

Among those protesting in the streets on Thursday night against broadening the war was Gili Roman, whose relative, Carmel Gat, was among six hostages executed by Hamas in an underground tunnel last year when they heard Israeli army forces approaching.

Like others protesting, he fears more fighting in the very areas where hostages are being held, such as Gaza City, could spell their death sentences.

鈥淭he Netanyahu government always says 鈥楲et鈥檚 just do this one more step and we will reach our goals,鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淎t some stage, you have to be honest with your people and say it does not work.鈥�