Satellite images show Israel building up forces for a possible ground invasion of Gaza – NBC News

Commercial satellite images show the Israeli military building up troops and equipment near the border with Gaza that would support a possible new ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, NBC News reported citing three U.S. officials and a former official who viewed the imagery.

The images show troop movements and formations that the four sources recognized as signs of an imminent major ground operation, according to the report.

Israel’s security Cabinet approved a plan early Friday to take over Gaza City, citing Netanyahu’s office. The plan falls short of the full occupation of Gaza that Netanyahu had discussed earlier.

Netanyahu told Fox News earlier Thursday that Israel intends to take control of Gaza but not for the long term.

“We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body,” he told the network. “We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life. That’s not possible with Hamas.”

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that “the Israeli occupation seeks to break the will of the Palestinian people through more bloodshed and destruction of homes.” He said “it will fail.”

Israel's plan for a complete military takeover of Gaza violates an International Court of Justice ruling that Israel must end its occupation “as soon as possible,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has said.