Report: change-up in Gaza policy
The sourcing is a bit sketchy, so I’m not sure this news is true. But if it is, it represents quite a change:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reached a decision for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip, including operations in areas where hostages are held, a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
Additionally, on Tuesday morning, an Israeli official told the Post that Netanyahu will convene an extensive meeting on Gaza and a hostage deal, noting that “the prime minister is considering all available options regarding the next steps.”
The Israeli official added that US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff returned to the US to meet with the president and “a broad consensus that a deal must include all the hostages.”
I think there is zero chance that Hamas will ever make a deal for all the hostages. The hostages are worth their weight in gold a million times over. If not for the hostages, Hamas would have been destroyed much earlier in this war. The hostages are power to Hamas – power to torment Israelis and to pressure Israel immensely.
The supposed plan to occupy Gaza may be a threat designed to pressure Hamas. I certainly don’t know. But if real, it represents a change that may end up causing Hamas to murder the remaining hostages. Perhaps Netanyahu has finally decided that there is no way to get them back, so they will be sacrificed in order to achieve victory, but I actually doubt that is the strategy. What the strategy may be I don’t know, but so far Israel has had quite a few surprises up its sleeve.
As for world opinion of such an occupation, look what the world thinks of Israel even though it has taken pains – and many losses of members of its military – in order to wage the most population-sparing of any guerrilla war, and to do this in an area where the enemy would like more of its civilians killed. The world condemns Israel whatever it does, so it may as well do what’s best for Israel.
Occupation is one thing – but how long? And how many personnel would be needed? I don’t have the answers to those questions either, but I do have the questions.
NOTE: There’s also a report that Israel has a plan to redevelop the southern areas of the country attacked on 10/7, and to make them more resistant to attack:
The financial decision includes two main plans: one focused on strengthening and developing the city of Ashkelon, and the other on advancing the broader development of the western Negev region, according to a joint statement from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Finance Ministry.
It was a month or so ago I noticed an announcement that Israel was going to start annexing land it had taken militarily in an effort to pressure Hamas.
Full occupation of Gaza is the logical endgame.
That will be a headache too, of course, but a better one IMO. Then we shall see what we shall see.
I like that Netanyahu isn’t playing by the usual script.
Almost need old fashioned walled cities on that border.
Militantly expansionist Islam will never stop by itself. It can’t be made to stop. It can only be defended against and that includes being on the offensive in many cases.
“changup”??
There’s a distinction to be drawn between the U.S. and Israel, both countries that go to great lengths to retrieve hostages. The U.S. uses persuasion, diplomacy, and sometimes targeted military action to get our people back, and field commanders operate on the principle that “no one gets left behind.” But even so, the admirable goal of bringing everyone home can sometimes be forsaken in the name of national interests and/or operational success.
Israel, though. They even go out of their way to get the dead bodies, or even any remains. I know it’s because of their religion, and that’s fine, but it does tend to make you go into a war with one hand tied behind your back, one your enemy knows about.
One of the advantages of being a secular republic, I guess. The decision to retrieve a person or a dead body boils down to a choice. If the trade-off is too high, you don’t pursue it. But with Israel it’s a moral absolute. You do what you have to, no matter what is required.
I’m not condemning. Am Israel Chai, after all. But it does present its obstacles.
Amit Segal with an extended comment on the implications of this announcement:
https://x.com/AmitSegal/status/1952713099418517658
A part of Segal’s reflection —
Dejavu
https://x.com/JewishWarrior13/status/1952726444666237018
Ah, si miguel, one of the new flotilla participants emerges!
https://x.com/JewsFightBack/status/1952754760567881795
Barry Meislin:
Fixed, thanks.
It has been clear to me from the start, Oct 7,2023, that the hostages must all be considered as sacrifices and Hamas the evildoers must be executed 100%. But the anti-semitic, anti-Israel forces globally must be catered to.
It is all part of the West’s decline into nothingness.
making any area a no go zone, make it very clear where they would hide the hostages, have we not seen this before, also why are there always cameras where the hamas prisoners are being released, and never with the israeli ones,
there are sometimes when I think the Morgenthau plan had promise, and then you realize it wouldn’t have worked,
The logical outcome of Never Again is the complete annihilation of Hamas and Gaza. Netanyahu has been vacillating and weak. There’s almost no Western leader with the stones to do what must be done when war commences. That’s how civilizations die.
It has to be done, the war has lingered on too long. The extended hostilities are leading to problems on the international scene. Starmer and Macron have clarified the dangers of waiting.
Richard Aubrey understandably opines; “Militantly expansionist Islam will never stop by itself.”
Allah has declared sincere jihad against the infidel to be the surest path to ‘paradise’.
“It can’t be made to stop.”
You deter a mortal enemy by creating consequences that for the enemy are too terrible to risk.
Allah, in his sacred Qur’an has declared that any Muslim who at death is in an ‘unclean’ state is forever barred from paradise.
Islam has never lost one of its ‘holy’ sites but takes delight in despoiling and destroying other faith’s holy sites. Mecca is of inestimable value for Muslims. So hold the continued existence of Islam’s holy sites hostage to a cessation of terrorist attacks. Of course, such a policy will need a ‘convincer’. Destroying the Dome of the Rock should be persuasive. When they riot in the West, put down the rioters with ‘extreme prejudice’…
The modern West’s failure to stop militant Islam has never been a case of inability but of will.
Related:
Pallywood back with a vengeance…and a massive
globaluniversal footprint.“Staged Suffering? German Investigation Exposes Hamas’s Photo Propaganda Machine.”—
https://instapundit.com/736561/
The problem with Islam is that there are a billion Muslims and some of them control very strategic oil-rich areas.
I doubt much of the non-Islamic world is truly antisemitic. However, when they weigh the interests of those billion Muslims, the trouble they can make, and their oil-rich Muslim lands against a relative handful of Jews, it’s an easy, pragmatic, if heartless and unfair, choice.
The standard arguments for Israel are entirely valid, but IMO miss the point that it’s not a rational debate.
@ Barry – a comment from your Instapundit link:
The Masked Marvel 3 hours ago edited
Imagine how bad things would be if the Jews didn’t control the media. Stupid Jews, can’t do anything right.
In re the Insty Pallywood post, linked at that piece.
References another recent photo-hoax perpetrated by the Times and expands on the now-unsurprising hypocrisy and blatant bias of the publishers.
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/08/05/former-nyt-director-paper-is-digging-own-grave-n4942410
Maybe Bibi is just tired of the continual lying by the press and everyone else, never getting any credit or being cut any slack although Israel does things to benefit its enemy that no other country would ever be expected – required, really – to do.
Mitchell Strand, there is an additional factor. You don’t REALLY know what happened to a hostage until you get their body back. When they sent back the body of Shiri Bibas, it turned out that it wasn’t actually her. Israel had to demand they provide the correct body.
Also, when you get the body back, you can learn about how they were murdered. I imagine that information could have military use.
Some support for Netanyahu’s decision.
https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2025/08/04/after-decades-of-terror-israel-reclaiming-gaza-is-the-only-rational-move-n4942404
I draw attention to this comment:
Ilana–
I think that’s right. On the other hand, if you trade a hundred Palestinian terrorists to retrieve a dead body, the intelligence you get from a post-mortem examination would have to offset the future damage done by the terrorists you set free.
I don’t know what could be found from an autopsy that would balance the scales.
However, considering the beeper caper Mossad pulled last year, I have no doubt that any released terrorists are being tracked, probably by something small inside their bodies, so that might help mitigate the costs of negotiating for the return of corpses.
If Israel occupies Gaza, populated by a million Palestinians that seek to kill any Israeli , Israel will be catching a tiger by the tail.
Israel will be occupying a territory that will be a hell on earth for Israel.
Frankly, I don’t think there is any solution to the Gaza mess other than expelling all the Gazans.
But there is zero chance of that occurring.
Perhaps Israel should build a massive barrier betwixt Gaza and Israel that is constructed to thwart any airborne (esp. drone attacks ) or ground or underground assault , grant the Palestinians zero access to Israel for work or medical care, and launch focused military strikes frequently within Gaza to kill any Hamas terrorists and destroy missile launch sites within Gaza that are sure to materialize.
In addition Israel should have multiple surveillance drones constantly flying over Gaza to monitor all activities there.
Hamas will never give up their goal of liquidating Israel. Israel just needs to get on with it and find and kill every Hamas official ASAP regardless of which country they are residing in.
It may take a painfully long time – but eventually every single member of Hamas will be killed. Israel is and will remain the paragon of Western Civilization.
Germany and Japan had their cities reduced to bone-flecked ash, and their populations ethnically cleansed from some areas, before they could be reliable peace partners. It would really be best for Gazans to find some other way.
There is a tragic irony here that too many in the West will fail to appreciate.
–Israel completely withdraws from Gaza in 2005 and leaves it to the “Palestinians”
–Gazans now run their own territory
–Gazans elect Hamas to power and/or Hamas takes control
–the Gaza strip is turned into a base for terrorist attacks against Israel
–October 7 2023
–the only way to neutralize the threat to their nation and people is to occupy the Gaza Strip
–“Palestians” complain about Israeli occupation
Not sure that everyone understands:
The goal is to destroy Israel.
If, TO ACCOMPLISH THIS GOAL, Hamas must destroy themselves and the people in Gaza in the process, they are perfectly prepared to do so.
In fact, they would exult in doing so.
It must be said, though, that given their—and their friends’—superb propagandistic skills, they probably don’t expect to have to go through with this humungous-scale, suicide-belt strategy (taken to the maximum level) even if they are willing to do so, counting—as they do—on support garnered in the West, as well as in Israel itself, to help them achieve this audacious, but perfectly, for them, understandable and justified goal—i.e., to help them destroy Israel—all in the name of human rights and/or outrage and/or justice and/or compassion and/or protecting the perceived underdog, and or weariness and/or practicality.
And/or agreement (or ultimate agreement) with that goal.
And it could well be that their analysis and conclusions will, in the end, be proven correct.
furthermore as with the Taliban emirate in Afghanistan, it serves as a base for the West, see also the Houthi microstate in Yemen,
we are the Greater Satan, they are the lesser,
18 months ago I claimed that Israel would have to reoccupy all of Gaza, because that’s the only way to stop Hamas and, long term more importantly, that’s the only way Gazan people will learn to live in peace with Israel.
It’s a leeeetle bit sad that it has taken so long, but it should be no surprise. If it’s not Israel in control of the Jew-hating Gazans, stopping their terrorism, it will be some other group, like other Arabs, who will allow Hamas like terrorists prepare and do attacks on Jews.
Israel should declare Gaza a third state, in a 3 state solution, and write up a good constitution like Switzerland has, and develop Gaza to be like Singapore.
Inviting French & Irish peacekeepers would be good, especfor those areas already pacified. Allowing emigration should also be emphasized.
Amit Segal reports the shape of this policy change as it appears today:
https://x.com/AmitSegal/status/1953158961898606799
@Tom Grey:Israel should declare Gaza a third state, in a 3 state solution, and write up a good constitution like Switzerland has, and develop Gaza to be like Singapore.
Just need to find our magic wands and transform Gazans into Swiss or Chinese, I guess. (I’ve never seen any evidence that Swiss ways of doing things work for anyone but Swiss.)
Geoffrey Britain on August 5, 2025 at 11:39 pm:
“You deter a mortal enemy by creating consequences that for the enemy are too terrible to risk… Destroying the Dome of the Rock should be persuasive.”
As you probably know, scholars now suggest the Dome of the Rock, built around 691 AD, was probably originally a Christian worship center of some sort. Only by maybe 750 AD or so would a controlling caliph have converted it to a Muslim mosque.
I have had a fantasy that Israel should respectfully dismantle the Dome of the Rock [treating it as an Islamic building essentially, no longer a Christian one], labeling and recording how they did it, and transporting the pieces parts to a location in Jordan or Saudi Arabia that is geographically on a line between Jerusalem and Mecca, along with a set of re-assembly instructions. Then a Jordanian or other Muslim entity can rebuild it if they choose. Maybe even make a “state” around it and move the Gazans there? Fantasy still? Probably.
Then the Israelis might also undertake a rebuilding of the temple (per earlier commenters) at that Dome site or nearby, as archeology or other issues dictate.