Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced Friday that the Security Cabinet had approved his proposal "for defeating Hamas," which included the IDF taking control of Gaza City, where a million Palestinians still live.
The Security Cabinet adopted five principles that it said would end the war, including the disarming of Hamas, the return of all Israeli captives, the demilitarization of Gaza, Israeli security control over the enclave and the establishment of a new civil administration.
Hamas, in a statement, condemned the Israeli decision as a "new war crime" that it said amounted to "ethnic cleansing."
"We warn the criminal occupation that this criminal adventure will cost it dearly. It will not be a walk in the park. Our people and their resistance are resilient to defeat or surrender, and Netanyahu's plans, ambitions, and delusions will fail miserably," Hamas said.
Hamas said that the plan could endanger the lives of the remaining living captives, and added that Israel is "disregarding the lives of prisoners," a point echoed over the weekend by Israelis demonstrating in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Bring Them Home Now, an organization representing the families of Israelis still held captive in Gaza, shared a photo on social media of a demonstration Saturday of some 60,000 people gathered in Hostages Square across from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. It also shared footage of the large crowds marching around the Kirya military base.
"Expanding the fighting endangers the hostages and the soldiers -- the people of Israel are not willing to risk them!" the group captioned the post. The organization has called for a comprehensive deal to end the war and return the captives home.
Protesters at the demonstration have reportedly included former IDF soldiers who have since refused to serve as the war continues. Former combat soldier Max Kresch told the BBC that some 350 soldiers who participated in the war were refusing service because the war "endangers the hostages and starving innocent Palestinians in Gaza."
Families of the captives in Gaza and soldiers who have died in the fighting are now calling for a nationwide strike that would shut down the country's economy on Sunday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
The strike has received the support of Yair Golan, the leader of Israel's Democrats party, who said Sunday on social media that his party would be participating in the strike.
"I call on all Israeli citizens, everyone who holds the value of life and mutual responsibility dear, to strike with us and take to the streets, to fight and disrupt," he said. "We cannot continue with routine life in the face of abandoning our brothers and sisters in Gaza. We cannot remain silent in the face of this reality."
Yair Lapid, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, the major opposition party in Israel, called the strike "justified" in a statement Sunday.
"The call of the hostages' families to shut down the economy is justified and worthy; we will continue to stand by their side," he said.
Before the Security Cabinet approved the plan to seize control of Gaza City on Friday, IDF chief Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir reportedly said it was "vital" for Israelis to dissent against the plan, which he warned would "drag Israel into a black hole." Zamir reportedly said that the operation would take years and expose to Israeli soldiers to guerilla warfare.
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