The Israeli government backed a plan to take control of Gaza City, but stopped short of explicitly supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention to control the entire enclave.
After a 10-hour meeting, a majority of the security cabinet agreed to expand the war. It also declared conditions for ending the war, including the return of all hostages and the disarmament of Hamas. The head of the Israeli military pushed back, The New York Times reported, saying forces were exhausted.
The plan was met with condemnation from the EU, China, and Britain among others, while Germany said it would pause exporting military equipment to Israel that could be used in the Gaza Strip.
Two foreign-policy experts argued for the Carnegie Endowment that the move was a “march of folly,” and that without a political peace process, Israel and Hamas were “doomed to an endless wash, rinse, and repeat cycle of war and suffering.”