TEL AVIV—Israel is in the midst of the second phase of a three-phase Gaza war plan that ends with the military in full control of the strip, according to current and former officials with knowledge of the planning. The sources provided previously undisclosed details about the structure, timeline, and goals of the plan.
Phase Two began last week, and like Phase One before it, is intended to last about two months. During this time, the military aims to further degrade Hamas’s leadership and infrastructure, take control of about 75 percent of Gaza, move all civilians into three areas in the remaining 25 percent, and work with an American organization to control the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid in the strip.
Four aid distribution sites secured by Israeli troops and run by the U.S. group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating last week in southern and central Gaza, according to the military.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced at a May 21 press conference that Israel’s next step in the war will be to create a "sterile zone" in the Mawasi area of southern Gaza and enable the distribution of a full spectrum of aid there. In the other two civilian areas, to be built in central Gaza, only food aid will be provided, not fuel and other supplies, the sources confirmed. Netanyahu did not commit to ending international groups’ provision of aid in Gaza, which the government allowed to resume last month after an 80-day blockade of the strip.
By the end of Phase Two, Hamas should be largely cut off from nonfood aid as well as weapons that are smuggled into Gaza on aid trucks, according to the sources. But the military does not plan to clear Hamas from the two civilian areas in central Gaza until the final phase of the war. Hamas will therefore remain embedded among the population in those areas and continue diverting food aid for now, though likely with greater difficulty under the new controls.
"As long as you have Hamas alongside the population, you cannot really put a siege on them," said Amir Avivi, a former deputy commander of the Gaza Division with close ties to the military and government. "Only in areas you conquer you can make sure that nothing goes in.
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