At stormy cabinet meet, IDF chief said to warn Gaza op will lead to full-fledged occupation

[Uncle Joe]

Netanyahu rejects Zamir’s push for hostage-truce agreement; far-right ministers reportedly accuse army chief of cowardice for backing a deal over expanded war

Left to right: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at his office in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. (Nava Freiberg/Times of Israel); IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir in Jerusalem on March 5, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

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“Your decision to conquer Gaza City — and afterwards this will lead to the conquest of the refugee camps in central Gaza — and then it will be a military government, because there will be no other body that could take responsibility for the population,” Zamir was said to have warned.

PM tells cabinet Trump told him not to strike partial deal

Moreover, Netanyahu reportedly told cabinet ministers that US President Donald Trump has urged him not to accept any partial ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, because it will turn into a sequence of small “salami” mini-deals, and to instead fight the terror group “with full force.”

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“Netanyahu, the father of phased releases, founder of the ‘selections’ method, opposes the method that he initiated and the agreement he already approved,” the forum said, employing an analogy frequently made by opponents of phased release deals that likens them to “selections” at Nazi death camps between those conscripted for forced labor and those sent directly to gas chambers.

“The truth has come out: This is not a negotiation strategy, it’s a ‘torpedo’ strategy and a burial of the deal. Netanyahu is sacrificing the hostages and the soldiers on the altar of his political survival, at a time when an actual deal is on the table, approved by Hamas, that could turn into a framework to return the last of the hostages and end the war.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-stormy-cabinet-meet-netanyahu-refuses-idf-chiefs-push-for-vote-on-hostage-deal/