(LifeSiteNews) –– The Israeli government’s security cabinet unanimously approved early Monday morning plans to expand its genocidal war in Gaza, a move Israeli officials say will result in a full-scale military occupation of the Palestinian enclave.

According to Haaretz, the plan includes “the capture or takeover of additional areas throughout the strip and the expansion of the buffer zone held by the IDF,” an area where Israeli forces have already leveled nearly all buildings, including civilian homes.

Additionally, the government plans to displace the Palestinian civilians once again moving the approximately two million people (one million children) into a small area of the southern Gaza.

A government source stated that unlike past military actions that were characterized by “raid-based operations,” this plan moves rather to the goal of “the occupation of territory and a sustained Israeli presence in Gaza.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich openly declared that Israel intends to “finally occupy the Gaza Strip,” imploring that his country is no longer afraid of the word “occupation.”

He added that once the new offensive starts, nothing will interfere with the IDF’s operation to “conquer” Gaza. This includes Hamas releasing Israeli hostages.

There will be “no retreat from the territories we have conquered, not even in exchange for hostages,” Smotrich said. “Once we occupy and stay, we can talk about sovereignty. But I did not demand that this be included among the goals of the war. First, we will defeat Hamas and prevent it from existing.”

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich:
“The time has come to pounce on Gaza, occupy it… impose military rule, seize land, and implement Trump’s plan to remove 1.5–2 million Gazans.” pic.twitter.com/boN7XsSvfA

— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 5, 2025

Last week, the finance minister indicated that release of the Israeli hostages was not necessarily the government’s first priority but rather ethnic cleansing was an essential goal as well, pledging that Israel would not stop fighting until “hundreds of thousands of Gazans are on their way out of it to other countries”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed this perspective stating on Thursday that freeing the hostages was not Israel’s first priority but the “supreme objective is victory over our enemies.”

An organization representing the families of current hostages still being held in Gaza sharply criticized this new plan. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it should be named the “Smotrich-Netanyahu plan” to “give up on the hostages and Israel’s security and national resilience.”

They went on to affirm that this plan indicates the government is choosing territories over the hostages, which they said is against the will of over 70 percent of Israelis.

A report from AFP quoted an Israeli official who said Israel will “allow a window” for a hostage deal during a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to the Middle East that is planned to begin on May 13, before the offensive is launched.

However, Israel has repeatedly rejected offers by Hamas to free all the hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, indicating, once again, Israel’s primary goal for the region involving ethnic cleansing.

The authorization of the plan to take over Gaza comes after more than two months of Israel imposing a total blockade of humanitarian aid to the besieged population that is causing children to starve to death, with The New York Times reporting the situation in the enclave to be “catastrophic.”

The new plan approved by the Israeli government does include a provision to utilize a private security company to distribute humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza, but there is no indication such a plan can be implemented in the short term to stave off massive deaths due to famine.

As early as November 2023, LifeSiteNews reported on an interview with Colonel Douglas Macgregor who assessed that the continued Israeli bombardment of Gaza does not have as its primary aim the rescue of hostages or the destruction of Hamas, but achieving the small strip’s complete destruction and the expelling of the entire civilian population of 2.4 million people.

“Making Gaza unlivable is the top priority,” the decorated combat veteran said at the time. Emphasizing the long-standing goal of the Zionist project to expel the Palestinian people from the land they have lived on for centuries, he called Israel’s attack upon the strip, “the first stage in a multistage operation designed to create ‘greater Israel’ from the Jordan River all the way to the Mediterranean.” The Israelis have made this goal “abundantly clear off-and-on for many years. This is not a secret. Now it’s happening.”

RELATED:

Christian leaders in the Holy Land rebuke Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians

‘Pro-life’ GOP starving 1 million children to death in Gaza, USCCB remains silent

Holy Land Christians demand USCCB denounce Israel’s genocide, oppose US military support

Palestinian Christian leaders sharply admonish USCCB for collaboration with Zionists

How do Christians in the Holy Land understand the Israeli occupation of Palestine?

Israel bombs Christian hospital, destroys St. George statue as Holy Week begins

Religious Zionist settlers savagely assault Palestinian Oscar winner for exposing their crimes