The Israeli war cabinet met on Monday to decide on the next phase of Israel’s war on Gaza. The meeting was reportedly to choose between ending the war in favor of ceasefire talks or expanding it to reoccupy the entire Strip. According to initial unconfirmed reports, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has briefed “friendly journalists” that he has ordered the Israeli army to “conquer Gaza” in the face of opposition from the army’s Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir. Netanyahu’s office reportedly told N12: “The decision has been made — Israel is going to conquer the Gaza Strip.”

The ceasefire was supported by Israeli army officials, while the decision to reoccupy Gaza is favored by the hardline ministers like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are key allies in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition and are credited with playing an influential role in sustaining the ongoing Israeli onslaught.

According to the Israeli army’s radio on Monday, Zamir had demanded “clarity” from the Israeli government regarding the future of the war effort, reportedly discouraging the reoccupation of Gaza, believing it would “drain” the Israeli army.

As ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ wraps up, ceasefire negotiations center around famine

Zamir’s message to the cabinet came amid Israel’s announcement last week of the end of its latest military offensive in Gaza, dubbed Operation Gideon’s Chariots, while one of Israel’s cabinet members, Zeev Elkin, threatened to “annex parts of Gaza” as a “pressure tool” against Hamas in ceasefire negotiations.

The message was also issued following the visit of U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to Israel and Gaza last week. On Friday, Witkoff met families of Israeli captives in Tel Aviv, where he reaffirmed U.S. efforts to reach a ceasefire deal, without giving any details on the progress of the talks. Witkoff said that Hamas was considering giving up its weapons, while the resistance group responded in a statement saying that it would only lay down its arms after the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Before going to Tel Aviv, Witkoff spent five hours at one of the centers of the controversial U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Following his visit to one of the GHF sites, he said that there is hardship and shortage, but “no starvation” in Gaza. On Monday, a group of 17 international human rights organizations responded to Witkoff’s claims in a joint statement, saying that the US envoy had “totally ignored the facts on the ground,” stating that “evidence can’t be erased with statements,” and “starvation in Gaza is real and has already claimed the lives of 159 people including 90 children which is a documented number that reflects the size of the crime that can not be justified or denied.”

Last week, Israel handed over its objections to Hamas’s response to Witkoff’s latest ceasefire proposal. Israel’s objections included Hamas’s amendments to the Israeli military withdrawal maps, especially insisting on maintaining Israel’s military presence in the Philadelphi Corridor— the militarized area straddling the Palestinian-Egyptian border — and the principle of exchanging bodies of slain Israeli captives for living Palestinian prisoners. However, the U.S. has not put forward a new version of the ceasefire proposal.

During Witkoff’s visit, Hamas’s armed wing released video footage of an emaciated Israeli captive suffering from starvation and severe malnutrition, who said in the video that he hadn’t eaten in several days. The video sparked protests by the families of Israeli captives and provoked Netanyahu to comment on the video in a televised statement, saying that Hamas was “seeking to break us.”

On Sunday, Netanyahu’s cabinet stated that it had requested the International Committee of the Red Cross to guarantee the entry of food to Israeli captives. Hamas responded by saying that it would “cooperate positively” with the Red Cross on the condition that a permanent humanitarian corridor is established for Gaza and that Israeli military aircraft cease flight over the Strip during the entry of aid.

The same day, Hamas stated that it would be “ready to engage in talks again when the starvation ends,” implying that the end of starvation is the resistance movement’s new condition for the return to talks.