(LONDON and TEL AVIV) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with his security cabinet on Thursday, an Israeli official said, as he considers plans to occupy the Gaza Strip despite international condemnation of the deteriorating humanitarian situation there.

Netanyahu is expected to ask the cabinet to approve plans for the Isreal Defense Forces to gradually seize Gaza City, the largest city in the territory, the Israeli official told ABC News.

The cabinet was expected to meet at about 6 p.m. local time, or 11 a.m. ET, the source said.

Netanyahu said Israel “intends to” take control of all of Gaza, but “we don’t want to keep it or govern it,” he said in an interview Thursday with Fox News.

“We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab fo

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