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“.... A decisive majority of Security Cabinet ministers believed that the alternative plan that had been submitted to the Security Cabinet would neither achieve the defeat of Hamas nor the return of the hostages,” Netanyahu’s office added without elaborating on what the alternative plan was.

But the military’s senior leadership, including chief of staff Eyal Zamir, opposed conquering and reoccupying Gaza, according to two former Israeli officials and a person familiar with the prime minister’s decisions. That person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

Zamir and his commanders were expected to have also laid out plans that included striking and besieging — but not entering — Gaza City, as well as the central area’s refugee camps, to pressure Hamas. In a statement Thursday, Zamir, who has clashed with Netanyahu this week, said that the military had already “met and even exceeded the operation’s objectives” in Gaza....

..... Chuck Freilich, a former deputy national security adviser, said Netanyahu and the Israeli army understand the price of occupation of Gaza, which Israel practiced from 1967 to 2005, the year before Hamas won legislative elections in the territory. He said that period had cost Israel in soldiers’ lives, billions of dollars and social divisions that still resonate in the heated public discourse...."