In a major escalation of its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, Israel's security cabinet on Sunday approved a wide-ranging plan dubbed "Gideon's Chariots," signaling a new phase of operations that deepens the ongoing humanitarian crisis and defies growing international pressure for a ceasefire. The plan, endorsed by the Israeli government, includes the continued presence of occupation forces in areas they seize—an apparent shift toward prolonged military control and mass displacement. It also reportedly aims to disrupt Hamas's distribution of humanitarian aid and push civilians southward under the stated goal of "protecting them"—a justification that United Nations officials have flatly rejected. According to Haaretz, the plan includes denying Hamas access to aid and entrusting distribution to foreign contractors, a move that the UN humanitarian team in Gaza said "violates fundamental humanitarian principles" and constitutes a "tactic of coercion within a military strategy." The UN's condemnation further challenges Israel's narrative of facilitating aid delivery, which critics describe as a maneuver to deflect mounting global scrutiny. Hamas has dismissed the plan as a "deceptive maneuver" intended to obscure what it calls ongoing crimes against civilians. The group said the proposed aid mechanism amounts to political extortion and a breach of international law, particularly the Geneva Conventions. It accused Israel of pursuing a "starvation and displacement policy" to prolong the conflict. Meanwhile, on the ground, Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, announced a "complex ambush" on an Israeli engineering unit in southern Gaza, claiming multiple casualties. The Israeli military confirmed the death of a soldier from its Combat Engineering Corps in what it termed a "military operational traffic incident" in the Gaza envelope area, without explicitly linking it to the Hamas attack. Domestically, the expansion of the military campaign has ignited growing dissent within Israel. Families of hostages held in Gaza denounced the government's move as "a formal admission of abandoning the hostages," accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of prioritizing territorial gains over the captives' lives. In controversial remarks made Monday in Jerusalem, Smotrich declared: "We are occupying Gaza to stay. No more in-and-out. This is a war for victory," reiterating the government's refusal to withdraw—even in exchange for hostage releases. The humanitarian toll continues to mount. The Gaza Ministry of Health reported on Monday that the death toll has reached 52,567, with 118,610 wounded since the conflict began on 7 October 2023. Over the past 24 hours alone, 32 people were killed and 119 injured. Since 18 March 2025, the ministry has recorded 2,459 deaths and 6,569 injuries, underscoring the unrelenting pace of Israeli strikes more than six months into the war.
