Israel is on the brink of permanently occupying Gaza. If Hamas does not agree to Israel’s terms by the end of next week, the Palestinian enclave will be hit with an expanded invasion and then permanently occupied.
Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan Sunday night to seize and permanently settle northern Gaza, relocate the Palestinians there to the southern portion of the strip, and unleash an unrestrained military onslaught to root out what remains of Hamas. The operation will require thousands of additional reservists from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Among the terms of Israel’s proposed outline is the release of 10 hostages in exchange for a 45-day ceasefire.
The operation would begin after President Donald Trump concludes his trip to the Middle East next week. He is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
Is This Really About the Hostages?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the plan will achieve two primary objectives: defeating Hamas and getting the hostages back. According to The Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu said, “It differs from previous plans by shifting from targeted raids to seizing territory and maintaining control over it.”
But some are skeptical that the hostages are the priority. Israeli officials believe there are 59 remaining hostages, with fewer than half likely still alive. On Monday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said there will be no withdrawal, no matter what. “Once the maneuver begins, there will be no retreat from the territory we’ve taken — not even for hostages. The only way to free them is to defeat Hamas. Any withdrawal would bring the next October 7,” he said.
Some family members of hostages oppose the expanded offense. They believe it only increases the chances that they will die or, in the case of those already dead, that their bodies will ever be retrieved. Even IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned that escalation could endanger hostages.
IDF Morale Low?
Netanyahu said the approved military action will require tens of thousands of additional IDF reservists. But morale among reservists is in decline. Limor Simhony Philpott reported in The Spectator:
Reports indicate attendance rates plunged from around 150 percent earlier in the war, to as low as about 70 percent, with many reservists citing economic strain and disillusionment with the government’s Gaza strategy, or the lack of it.
Air force veterans, Mossad alumni, and reservists from the elite Unit 8200 — the IDF’s signals-intelligence agency — have accused Netanyahu of prioritizing political survival over rescuing hostages.
The question of who will govern Gaza post-Hamas is likely to trigger political acrimony. According to Philpott, the IDF wants nothing to do with it:
The IDF, in a major clash with the government, wants no part in long-term governance. The IDF has made it clear to [Netanyahu], that it will not take part in the day-to-day running of Gaza, including the distribution of food.
Some speculate Israel’s primary plan is not to occupy Gaza, but to force Hamas into a deal by threatening to do so.
Will Humanitarian Aid Resume?
Israel’s plan to expand its invasion includes continuing the blockade on Gaza and preventing humanitarian aid from entering. “Only later, following the start of the military operation and the evacuation of a large portion of the population to the south, will a humanitarian plan be implemented,” according to The Jerusalem Post. Israel wants to separate true recipients of humanitarian aid from Hamas terrorists “by using civilian companies and securing designated areas with the IDF.”
The situation has been dire in Gaza. Since Israel’s counterattack after October 7, Palestinians have lacked basic essentials including food, clean water, and medical attention. There has been a lot of finger-pointing, especially at Israel for bombing hospitals and obstructing aid. But it’s no secret Hamas uses civilians as shields and hides rockets in hospitals and schools. Reports also suggest Hamas has been siphoning off food, fuel, and medical supplies for itself. U.S. officials confirmed in May that Hamas intercepts and diverts shipments of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Hamas’ invasion into Israel and its massacre of nearly 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, is the reason for what is happening. It will also be solidified as justification if Israel permanently occupies Gaza. Hamas brutally and indiscriminately snuffed out the lives of civilians, raped and beat more, and took about 250 hostages. When they returned to Gaza, they barbarically paraded raped hostages through the streets to the reception of cheering civilians.
Israel Ignored “Abundant” & “Unsubtle” Oct. 7 Warnings
October 7 still fuels Israel’s rage. But from the moment the world learned about the attack, one of the first questions on everyone’s mind, both Jew and gentile, was: How could a nation with one of the best intelligence agencies in the world, a nation with perhaps the most technologically advanced warning system in the world, a nation that has learned to survive in a sea of enemies — how could they have not known of such an elaborate plan that was years in the making?
Israel did know.
Jonathan Foreman went through a long list of internal warnings Israel’s security higher-ups ignored over a span of months before the attack. His article “The Untold Story of How Israel Failed on October 7” in Commentary magazine provides several examples of prior knowledge of October 7.
For one:
On the night before Hamas struck … key officials — including the chief of defense staff, the head of IDF Southern Command, and the prime minister’s chief intelligence adviser — were all notified of worrying intelligence data from Gaza, but they either failed to pass on those warnings or failed to act on them.
IDF commanders also ignored concerns “raised by the corps of young female observers whose job was to watch footage coming from Gaza 24 hours a day. Many of those observers were stationed at the Nahal Oz post right next to the border.”
Continues Foreman:
In July 2023, less than four months before the invasion, an experienced analyst in Unit 8200 … warned her superiors that Hamas had conducted a daylong training military exercise that corresponded extremely closely to the captured Hamas invasion plan code-named Jericho Wall.
Her commander ignored her, so she “went over his head and sent her concerns to more-senior officers. The only result was an official reprimand.”
“At the beginning of October, the Gaza division commander learned that six Hamas battalions … were engaging in twice-weekly training drills.” He did nothing about it.
Plus, Foreman notes:
The female conscripts of the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps made frequent representations to their commanders about what looked like preparations for a large-scale Hamas assault between May 2023 and the morning of the actual attack. Their warnings were dismissed as hysterical, despite the fact that the observer corps had a sterling reputation.
“The evidence was abundant and unsubtle,” Foreman summarizes, stopping short of concluding the inaction was intentional. The problem, he believes, is that only “people too low in the defense hierarchy to enjoy real influence” noticed what was happening.
Allowed to Happen?
The New American’s May 12, 2025 print issue includes an article titled “America’s Long History of Coverups.” It details how some of the most pivotal events in American history were prompted by attacks that were allowed to happen. Those include the sinking of the Lusitania and Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor. There is ample evidence suggesting officials high up in the U.S. government not only knew those attacks were coming, but worked overtime to ensure they happened. The Lusitania conveniently provided a reason for U.S. entrance into World War I, while Pearl Harbor just happened to be enough to convince a previously unwilling American public to support American intervention in World War II.
With so many warnings that Israeli leadership ignored, it’s fair to wonder if October 7 was allowed to happen.
If Israel does permanently occupy Gaza, it will add fuel to the suspicion that Israel is always looking for justification to expand its boundaries.
