Netanyahu, IDF chief said to clash in stormy meeting over plans for Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir are said to have clashed at a stormy meeting between security chiefs and senior ministers last night over future military plans for the Gaza Strip.

According to quotes from the closed-door meeting reported by Channel 12, Netanyahu ordered Zamir to prepare a plan to relocate the vast majority of the population to southern Gaza.

“Do you want a military government? Who will govern two million people?” Zamir reportedly asks.

“IDF and the State of Israel,” Netanyahu is said to have raised his voice and shouted at Zamir.  “I don’t want a military government, but I’m not willing to leave Hamas behind in any way. I won’t allow this.”

Netanyahu says the alternative to the evacuation plan was to capture the entire Strip, including areas the IDF has not operated in until now for fear of harming the hostages.

“The alternative to evacuation to the south is to run over the whole Strip and capture all of it, and that means killing the hostages which I don’t want and not prepared to do,” the report quotes him as saying.

Zamir retorts to Netanyahu that such a plan could lead to a loss of control.

“We need to talk about this, we have not agreed to this. To control these people who are hungry and angry could lead to a loss of control and as a result of that loss of control they could turn on the IDF, ” Zamir warns.

Netanyahu dismisses his concern: “Prepare an evacuation plan – I want to see it when I return from Washington.”