![\"Analysis\"](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\")
Netanyahu grappling with divisions at top of government and militarypublished at 10:02 British Summer Time<\/p>\nNetanyahu grappling with divisions at top of government and militarypublished at 10:02 British Summer Time<\/p>\n
10:02 BST<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting yesterday with senior security officials, a day after media reports quoting an unnamed Israeli official – widely believed to be Netanyahu himself – suggested that the prime minister had already made a decision to expand the military operation in Gaza and fully occupy the territory, where two million Palestinians live.<\/p>\n According to Israeli media, there was a tense exchange between Netanyahu and the army\u2019s chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, who is against the idea of fully occupying Gaza.<\/p>\n Kan Radio reports Zamir told the meeting that the \u201ccomplete conquest of the Gaza Strip was tantamount to walking into a trap and would endanger the lives of the hostages and the troops\u201d.<\/p>\n This is another suggestion of the divisions between Israel\u2019s political and military leaders. For some time, the military leadership has been saying that their job in Gaza is done as Hamas no longer poses a threat as an organised military force.<\/p>\n The families of the hostages have reacted angrily to reports of a possible expansion of military activities, which will probably see the military entering parts of Gaza where the hostages are believed to be held. They say that the government\u2019s strategy of putting military pressure on Hamas has failed to guarantee their release, and time is running out to save the 20 hostages thought to be alive.<\/p>\n Polls suggest the vast majority of the Israeli public favour a deal with Hamas and the end of the war. Many here believe that Netanyahu is prolonging the conflict to guarantee the survival of his coalition, which relies on the support of ultranationalist ministers who have threatened to quit the government if there is any deal with Hamas.<\/p>\n A number of protests have taken place in Tel Aviv in recent days, demanding a ceasefire and the release of hostages<\/p>\n It is not clear if full occupation means a short-term operation or a long-term takeover. The speculation could also be part of a strategy to put pressure on Hamas to make concessions in stalled negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.<\/p>\n But ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have publicly defended expelling Palestinians from Gaza – which could amount to the forced displacement of civilians, a war crime – and resettling it with Jews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netanyahu grappling with divisions at top of government and militarypublished at 10:02 British Summer Time 10:02 BST Hugo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-322140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114981108775332484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/51fa9ff5-f9e4-44dc-9cbc-5510b7a165fb.jpg.webp.webp\")
Hugo Bachega<\/strong>
Middle East correspondent, reporting from Jerusalem<\/p>\n![\"Israeli](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ad8d09fc-a0aa-45c5-ac9a-c51d0889b998.jpg.webp.webp\")
Image source, AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"Israelis](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/707f9341-554c-4ee1-ba1c-577988594436.jpg.webp.webp\")
Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n