Live updates: Israel’s security cabinet approves Netanyahu plan to take over Gaza City.

The Israeli security cabinet’s approval of a plan for the military to take control of Gaza City is yet another major escalation of Israel’s war in the battered enclave.

As the cabinet voted, mass protests erupted across Israel over fears the decision to expand military operations would endanger hostages, and as international pressure mounted on Israel to end the conflict and allow more food into the territory as starvation spreads.

What did the cabinet vote on? Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to “defeat Hamas” and the military will prepare to take over Gaza City while ensuring what it described as the “provision of humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” the prime minister’s office said.

Keep in mind: The announcement appeared to stop short of saying explicitly that Israel would take full control of the Gaza Strip, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said was his intention earlier.

The cabinet also voted to adopt five principles for ending the war, including Israeli security control of Gaza and the establishment of a civilian administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.

The plan includes more than one phase, according to an Israeli source.

Initial phase: The deadline for the first phase of the operation, which includes the evacuation of Gaza City and an expansion of aid distribution, is October 7, according to the source.

October 7, 2025 is the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack that triggered Israel’s war in Gaza. The date was intentionally picked for its symbolism, the source said.

Israel will significantly expand the humanitarian aid effort at the beginning of the first phase, according to a second Israeli source, but the plan calls for no distribution within Gaza City as a means of encouraging Palestinians to evacuate.

The overall plan is expected to take up to five months, an Israeli official told CNN before the cabinet vote.

The approved plan is somewhat narrower than a full takeover of the entire enclave, focusing only on Gaza City and excluding surrounding camps. But it still entails the forced evacuation of nearly half of the territory’s population. Israel’s military already controls 75% of Gaza.

Military misgivings: The Israeli military’s chief Eyal Zamir warned the cabinet of the danger of worsening Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, the danger to hostages and the international implications of the plan, according to the first source. Zamir presented a limited plan that the cabinet rejected, the source said.

In an apparent reference to Zamir’s proposal, the prime minister’s office said an “alternative plan that had been submitted to the Security Cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages.”

Why just Gaza City? It’s not yet clear. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly pushed for full control over the entire enclave.

Ahead of the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu was asked whether Israel plans to take military control of all of Gaza. “We intend to,” Netanyahu told Fox News. He claimed Israel is aiming to “remove Hamas” in Gaza, before handing the territory to “civilian governance that is not Hamas, and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel.”

What’s the goal? CNN analyst and Axios reporter Barak Ravid said that the military aimed to evacuate all Palestinian civilians from Gaza City to central camps and other areas, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official. A siege and ground offensive in the city would follow.

It’s unclear whether areas outside of Gaza City not under Israeli control will later be taken over.

Mahmoud al-Qurashli, a displaced Palestinian in the enclave, told Reuters on Thursday that “practically all of Gaza has been squeezed into the western part of Gaza City.”