Washington – Commercial satellite images show that the Israeli army builds troops and teams near the border with Gaza that would support a possible new land invasion of the Palestinian enclave, according to three US officials and a former official who saw the images.
The images show movements and formations of troops that the four sources recognized as signs of an imminent important terrestrial operation.
Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan early Friday to take care of Gaza City, said Associated Press, citing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. The plan does not reach the complete occupation of Gaza that Netanyahu had discussed before.
If there is a new military operation, it could include efforts to recover Hamas hostages and expand humanitarian assistance in areas outside the fighting, said the three US officials and an informed person on Israeli discussions. Israeli troops have been carrying out terrestrial operations in Gaza since October 27, 2023, with pauses for two alert cessation.
Netanyahu said Thursday in Fox News that Israel intended to take control of all Gaza. “We intend to, to ensure our security, eliminate Hamas there, allow the population to be free of Gaza and transmit it to civil governance other than Hamas and that nobody defends the destruction of Israel. That is what we want to do.”
Pressing again at that point, specifically on whether it referred to Israel “would take control of the entire 26 -mile gaza strip,” Netanyahu said: “Well, we don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it.”
The accumulation of troops occurs for a tense time in relations between the United States and Israel. On July 28, Netanyahu and President Donald Trump had a private telephone conversation that became shouting amid the White House concerns about how Gaza’s humanitarian fund, an help effort backed by the United States and Israel, is working, according to a senior US official, two former US officials and a western official who were informed about the matter.
The recent outbreak of tensions between Trump and Netanyahu began on July 27. Appearing in an event in Jerusalem that day, Netanyahu said: “There is no star policy in Gaza. And there is no starvation in Gaza.”
When Trump was asked about those comments the next day during a trip to Scotland, he contradicted Netanyahu. He said he had seen images of children in Gaza that “seem very hungry”, that there is “true hunger” there and that “you can’t pretend that.”
Netanyahu then privately demanded a telephone call with Trump, according to the senior US official and the former American official informed about the call. The two leaders were connected in a matter of hours, those two officials said.
Netanyahu told Trump on the phone that the widespread hunger in Gaza is not real and that Hamas had manufactured, said the senior US official, two former US officials and the western official, all of whom were informed about the call. Trump interrupted Netanyahu and started screaming, they said, saying that he did not want to hear that hunger is false and that his assistants had shown evidence that the children are hungry, they said.
White House officials declined to comment on the phone call. Israeli officials declined to comment.
One of the former US officials reported the call described him as “a direct and unidirectional conversation about the state of humanitarian aid” in which Trump “was talking mostly.”
“The United States not only feels that the situation is serious, but also possesses it for GHF,” said the former official, referring to Gaza’s humanitarian fund.
The phone call caused a trip to the region last week by Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of the United States to the Middle East, to find a unified path in the war.
Israeli officials were satisfied with Witkoff’s visit, according to the western official and the source reported about Israeli discussions. The Israelis saw everything, from their body language to the questions he made as indicators that they could effectively communicate the challenges facing Israel. Israeli officials also addressed GHF’s international criticism with Witkoff, explaining why, in their opinion, some critics want me to fail, said the informed source about Israeli discussions.
GHF has been working in Gaza since May. It operates only in specific designated distribution sites that are far from some Palestinians who need food, which leads to large crowds that Israeli troops, which are parked nearby, have sometimes triggered. At the end of July, more than 1,000 Palestinians had been killed while looking for food, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. GHF has been boycotted by the UN, which has operated its own help distribution network in Gaza.
Witkoff pressed officials on whether current help efforts can meet continuous needs or must expand more, according to the informed source on Israeli discussions.
Witkoff has returned since then. He informed Trump on his visit during dinner on Monday night, according to a White House official. His discussion included humanitarian aid at the Gaza and Witkoff meeting with Israeli officials and hostage families.
When journalists asked him if he would support the occupation of Israel de Gaza, Trump said he is focused on making people food there. As for a military occupation, he said: “I really can’t say. That will depend on Israel.”
The White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, told NBC News: “We do not comment on the president’s private conversations. President Trump focuses on returning to all hostages and making people feed in Gaza.”
A new high Gaza’s fire has proven to be elusive. Israel does not believe that Hamas is motivated to negotiate the release of the remaining hostages, the source reported about Israeli discussions and the western official, and believes that a military offensive is the most likely option.
The international community has recently been extinguishing over Israel, with the United Kingdom, France, Canada and others saying that they can move to recognize a Palestinian State in the UN General Assembly in September.
“It seems that we are on a brick wall, with countries that say they are recognizing Palestine,” the person said about Israeli discussions. “Now all ideas are running out.”
The western official said that an offensive remains a very dangerous perspective for the Israeli army because Hamas is very excavated and “there is no possibility that they can kill all fighters.”
The western official added that there is concern that Hamas Matte to the hostages or put them in the fight if threatened.
Israeli forces know the general area where all hostages are, he said that the person reported about Israeli discussions and the Western official, one of which added that the belief is that the area is in the center of Gaza.
“Looking at the condition of the hostages, it is clear that they have no more time,” one of the fountains added in reference to a recent video of a demacrated Israeli hostage inside a narrow Gaza tunnel that dug its own tomb.
