Expanded Gaza operation includes 'wide-scale attack' and 'moving majority of the population’, says IDF
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its planned expanded offensive in Gaza includes a “wide-scale attack” and “moving the majority of the population” of the Palestinian territory.
A statement from IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin, reported by the Times of Israel, says:
The goal of the operation is the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas’s rule. These two goals are combined with each other.
The offensive “will include a wide-scale attack and the movement of the majority of the strip’s population, this is to protect them in an area sterile of Hamas. And continued airstrikes, elimination of terrorists, and dismantling of infrastructure,” he said.
Israel’s plan to expand its military operation in Gaza was unanimously approved at a security cabinet meeting late on Sunday.
Officials have said it would involved a new and intense offensive leading to “the conquest of Gaza and the holding of the territories, moving the Gaza population south for their protection [and] … powerful blows against Hamas”, going beyond any aims so far outlined by Israel for its offensive in Gaza.
It’s just past 10pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Benjamin Netanyahu announced a new “intensified” offensive in Gaza that will involve Israeli troops holding on to seized territory and significant displacement of the population. Israeli soldiers would not go into Gaza, launch raids and then retreat, Netanyahu said. “The intention is the opposite of that … Population will be moved, for its own protection.”
Israel’s security cabinet approved the plan on Sunday night for “conquering” the Gaza Strip and establishing a “sustained presence” there. The plan, which was unanimously approved, goes beyond any aims so far outlined by Israel for its offensive in the devastated Palestinian territory.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the new offensive, named Operation Gideon’s Chariots, would “include a wide-scale attack and the movement of the majority of the strip’s population. The announcement is a significant moment, at least in terms of public rhetoric, and will confirm many people’s long-held fears of Israel’s intentions in Gaza and prompt international outrage.
The Israeli announcement prompted deep international concern and fierce opposition. A spokesperson for the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the Israeli plan will “inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza.” A spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said: “The UK does not support an expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Continued fighting is in nobody’s interests.”
Donald Trump did not offer his views on Israel’s plan but blamed Hamas for having treated the people of Gaza “very badly”. The US will “help the people of Gaza get some food,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Hamas is making it impossible, because they’re taking everything that’s brought in.”
Israel sees Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week as a “window of opportunity” for a hostage deal in Gaza. Israel is reportedly trying to “leverage” the US president’s trip to push Hamas to accept a deal, with a report claiming that Israel will launch a massive ground operation if no deal is reached.
Israel’s military said it carried out airstrikes against Yemen’s Hodeidah port, a day after the Houthi group fired a missile that struck near Israel’s main airport. More than 10 strikes targeted Hodeidah Port and the Al Salakhanah and Al Hawak neighbourhoods in Hodeidah City, Reuters reported. Four strikes also targeted a cement factory east of Hodeidah.
Throughout the nearly 19-month war, Israeli troops have carried out large and frequently bloody operations that have covered all except central parts of Gaza, but they have largely restricted their permanent presence to a buffer zone about 1km deep along the devastated territory’s perimeter and two relatively narrow east-west corridors.
This now seems to have changed. Once “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” is under way, Israel will send its troops across much – if not all – of Gaza, and will seek to establish a “sustained presence” there, Israel officials said.
Israel is to expand its military operations in Gaza with the aim of establishing a ‘sustained presence’. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters
Israeli officials are also talking openly about the displacement of Palestinians to southern Gaza, and their potential “voluntary” displacement from the territory altogether to allow the implementation of the reconstruction plan announced by the US president, Donald Trump, in January. The far-right Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, told Israelis on Monday to embrace the word “occupation”.
All this will confirm many people’s long-held fears of Israel’s intentions in Gaza and prompt international outrage.
Trump says US will help Gaza 'get some food', blames Hamas
Donald Trump has said the US will “help the people of Gaza get some food” as he blamed Hamas for having treated them “very badly”.
Asked about Israeli plans for an expanded offensive in Gaza, Trump did not offer his views on Israel’s operations. Instead, he said:
Hamas is making it impossible, because they’re taking everything that’s brought in. But we’re going to help the people of Gaza because they’re being treated very badly by Hamas.
Israel’s air force has confirmed it carried out strikes in Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah.
In a series of posts on X, it said the attack by its fighter jets was carried out in response to Houthi attacks against Israeli targets. The statement continues:
The [Israel Defense Forces] IDF is determined to continue to act and strike forcefully against anyone who poses a threat to the residents and citizens of the State of Israel.
Expanded Gaza operation includes 'wide-scale attack' and 'moving majority of the population’, says IDF
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its planned expanded offensive in Gaza includes a “wide-scale attack” and “moving the majority of the population” of the Palestinian territory.
A statement from IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin, reported by the Times of Israel, says:
The goal of the operation is the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas’s rule. These two goals are combined with each other.
The offensive “will include a wide-scale attack and the movement of the majority of the strip’s population, this is to protect them in an area sterile of Hamas. And continued airstrikes, elimination of terrorists, and dismantling of infrastructure,” he said.
Israel’s plan to expand its military operation in Gaza was unanimously approved at a security cabinet meeting late on Sunday.
Officials have said it would involved a new and intense offensive leading to “the conquest of Gaza and the holding of the territories, moving the Gaza population south for their protection [and] … powerful blows against Hamas”, going beyond any aims so far outlined by Israel for its offensive in Gaza.
UN chief 'alarmed’ by Israeli military plan for Gaza
The UN’s secretary general António Guterres is “alarmed” by Israeli plans to expand military operations in Gaza and seek the “conquest” of the territory, a UN spokesperson has said.
“This will inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza,” said Farhan Haq, adding:
Gaza is, and must remain, an integral part of a future Palestinian state.
Israeli officials have confirmed that the Israeli air force is carrying out strikes in Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, the Times of Israel is reporting.
Separately, Axios is citing an Israeli official as saying that the strikes were coordinated with the US but that American forces were not actively involved.
A US official confirmed that Israel notified Washington in advance of the strike, Axios reports.
We reported earlier that a senior Israeli defence official said there was a “window of opportunity” for a hostage deal in Gaza during Donald Trump’s visit to the region next week.
The Times of Israel, citing an Israeli official said Israel is trying to “leverage” the US president’s trip to push Hamas to accept a deal.
Qatar is no longer “putting spokes in the wheels” of the Egyptian proposal for a deal, the official told the outlet. The paper quotes the official as saying:
We hope that all these factors will come together in the coming days and maybe will lead to a deal … If we come to an agreement, that is, if Hamas agrees to the Israeli conditions – because that is the only way we will reach an agreement – then the rest of the hostages would be released and the war would end.
Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, has reiterated his opposition to any humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
His comments came after Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to seize all of the Gaza Strip, including allowing the Israeli military to take over aid deliveries into the Palestinian territory.
Ben-Gvir was the only one who voted against the proposal.
“The only aid that ought to enter Gaza should be for voluntary migration, to allow them to emigrate voluntarily,” he said in comments carried by Israeli media.
As long as there are hostages no food, no electricity, and no other aid should be allowed – neither by the [Israeli military] nor by civil society.
Donald Trump said he had a “very good and productive” call with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on Monday.
The pair discussed the war in Ukraine and “all things Syria, Gaza, and more,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Trump said he was invited to go to Turkey and that Erdoğan will also be visiting Washington DC.
The Turkish presidency, in its readout of the Trump-Erdoğan call, said Erdoğan expressed support for US negotiations with Iran and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
Finland’s minister for foreign affairs, Elina Valtonen, has said she is “deeply concerned” about Israel’s plans to expand its military operation in Gaza.
In a post on X on Monday, Valtonen wrote:
I once again urge all parties to return to a ceasefire, and Hamas to immediately release the remaining hostages. Israel must ensure unimpeded access of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Iran accuses Netanyahu of trying to 'brazenly dictate' US policy
Here’s more from Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, who accusedBenjamin Netanyahu of “directly meddling” with the US government to “drag it into another disaster” in the Middle East region.
The Israeli leader is attempting to “brazenly dictate what President [Donald] Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran,” Araghchi wrote in a post on X on Monday.
Iran’s top diplomat warned against any attempt to attack Iran:
If the goal is “The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon” as President Trump just said, a deal is achievable and there is only ONE PATH to achieve it: DIPLOMACY based on MUTUAL RESPECT and MUTUAL INTERESTS.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi after a meeting with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, Pakistan, 05 May 2025. Photograph: EPA
His comments came after Netanyahu blamed Tehran after the Iran-backed Houthi group claimed a missile strike near Israel’s main airport on Sunday. Iran denied any role in the attack.
It also comes after the latest round of nuclear talks with the US, which were scheduled for 3 May, were delayed with mediator Oman citing “logistical reasons”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a new offensive in Gaza will be an intensive military operation aimed at defeating Hamas that would involve moving the population of Gaza. He stopped short of detailing just how much of the enclave’s territory would be seized following earlier reports that Israel could aim to capture the whole of the Gaza Strip.
Two Israeli officials said earlier today that Israel’s security cabinet had approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified amount of time. The two officials said the plan would involve the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza.
A senior Israeli defence official said there was a “window of opportunity” for a hostage deal in Gaza during US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region next week. It allows for the possibility that Israel might agree to a ceasefire in the meantime.
Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip even if there is another hostage deal is reached, far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich insisted as he called on Israelis to embrace the word “occupation.” “We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip. We will stop being afraid of the word ‘occupation,’” Smotrich told journalist from Israel’s Channel 12.
An Israeli campaign group said the plan would mean “sacrificing” hostages held in the Palestinian territory. “The plan approved by the cabinet deserves to be called the ‘Smotrich-Netanyahu Plan’ for sacrificing the hostages,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
Yemen’s Houthis said the US carried out strikes in and around Sana’a, after the Iran-backed rebels claimed a missile strike on Israel’s main airport yesterday. The Houthi-run Saba news agency said the strikes included two on Arbaeen Street in the capital and the airport road, blaming them on “American aggression”. Saba said 16 people were wounded.
Netanyahu says new Gaza offensive will be 'intensive'
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a new offensive in Gaza will be an intensive military operation aimed at defeating Hamas, but stopped short of detailing just how much of the enclave’s territory would be seized, Reuters reports.
“Population will be moved, for its own protection,” Netanyahu said in a video posted on X. He said Israeli soldiers won’t go into Gaza, launch raids and then retreat. “The intention is the opposite of that,” he said.
Earlier today two Israeli officials said Israel’s security cabinet had approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified amount of time.
There was one arrest at a protest outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset today, according to the Times of Israel.
Demonstrators were protesting against Benjamin Netayahu’s government and for the return of the remaining 59 hostages trapped in Gaza.
Police forcibly dispersed protesters who were blocking the road leading to the prime minister’s office.
peaking to Israel’s Channel 12, protesters said they showed up to demonstrate over a number of issues, including the failure to recover the hostages, the mass call-up of IDF reservists, and the treatment of the country’s educators amid ongoing wage disputes.
People attend a protest against Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in support of the release of all hostages left in Gaza. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has accused Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of attempting to drag the US into “disaster” in the Middle East, warning against any attempt to attack Iran, AFP reports.
“Netanyahu is directly MEDDLING within the US Government to DRAG it into another DISASTER in our region,” Araghchi said on X, warning against “ANY mistake against Iran”.
France has condemned the Houthi strike against Israel’s Ben Gurion airport yesterday.
“The Houthi attacks against Israel are unacceptable and can only fuel high regional tensions, further delaying an end to the conflict. They must cease immediately,” a statement from the French foreign ministry said.
“France reiterates its commitment to Israel’s security and reaffirms the right of the Israeli people to live in peace and security, as well as its commitment to regional stability.”
“The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, through its diplomatic and consular network, remains attentive to the situation of French citizens present in Israel, whether residents or passing through.”
