TEL AVIV — A short exchange last week between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top general during a closed-door security cabinet debate suggests that the Israeli premier himself does not believe in the plan he is touting for Israel to take full control of Gaza City and maybe the entire Gaza Strip.

According to security sources who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, when military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned that expanding the operation in Gaza as per Netanyahu’s plan risks the lives of the 20 Israeli hostages held there by Hamas, Netanyahu suggested that the troops operate only above ground, without venturing into tunnels, where the captives are being held. Zamir, dumbfounded according to the security sources, explained that Hamas militants would emerge from the tunnels to kill the advancing soldiers or the hostages themselves.

The cabinet, ignoring Zamir’s warnings, went on to vote in favor of the military moving into Gazan territory that it has not operated in during the 22-month war due to concerns that doing so would endanger the hostages' lives. 

Playing for time