Amid a war running into its second year, the Israeli government has approved its full military takeover of Gaza in a bid to rescue Israelis held hostage by Hamas.

Citing a statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, The New York Times reported that this decision followed 10 hours of deliberation by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Friday.

Israeli soldiers are expected to invade the Hamas enclave where  Israelis are believed to be held hostage by Hamas.

“The cabinet also approved five principles for ending the war, including the disarming of Hamas; the return of all 50 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive; the demilitarization of Gaza; Israeli security control over the enclave; and the establishment of an alternative civilian administration there that involves neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, the rival Western-backed body that exercises limited control in parts of the occupied West Bank,” the paper reported.

Before his cabinet approved the military takeover of Gaza, Mr Netanyahu had mooted the idea in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.

“We intend to,” Mr Netanyahu said when asked if Israel is considering a military takeover of Gaza.

The Israeli Prime Minister explained that conquering Gaza is “to liberate ourselves and the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas. We don’t want to keep it. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces”.

This comes as another twist in the lingering war between Israel and Palestine since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing over 1,000 people and abducting over 250, including women and children.

Hamas and Israel have released hostages in different phases of the ceasefire agreement. However, the war between the two countries has been ongoing for nearly two years.