Trump in February delighted the far right by calling for the enforced removal of Gazans, though even that initial plan envisioned a US takeover of the Strip, rather than Israel’s permanent reoccupation and settlement there.

He has gradually changed tack, however, first switching to a call for Gazans’ voluntary relocation, then dropping talk of moving Gazans out and instead focusing on concern for their well-being and the need to ensure they receive humanitarian aid.

This week, he reportedly told Netanyahu to just sign a deal already — to try and get back all the hostages and end the war, potentially reviving regional normalization efforts and isolating Iran.

If the disconnect is apparently widening between the US president and the Israeli prime minister — on Gaza, as well as on how to tackle near-nuclear Iran — the disconnect between the Israeli government and the IDF is a minute-by-minute concern.

As ordered by the political echelon, the military is deepening its physical control of Gaza.

It controlled 40% of the Strip when the last hostage-truce framework collapsed in March. It now holds some 50%, military sources say, and its declared goal is to take control of 75%, with the two million-plus Gazans largely concentrated in three mainly coastal mini-enclaves.

And then what? As far as repeated questioning of military sources can establish, the IDF actually doesn’t know.

Expanding its areas of control involves the IDF:
1. ordering civilian evacuations and then cleaning out the evacuated areas,
2. blowing up tunnels and booby-trapped buildings,
3. confronting those Hamas gunmen who have not slipped away with the non-combatants to the ostensibly safe zones,
4. and then staying put to await further orders.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir anticipate that the IDF will remain in perpetuity, to safeguard the eventual return of Jewish settlers.

For his part, Netanyahu used to speak about:
1. a “day after” in Gaza in which Hamas would be eliminated as a fighting force,
2. Gaza would be demilitarized,
3. the Gaza populace would be deradicalized and re-educated to the point where the threat of further October 7 atrocities was alleviated,
4. and an alternate governing mechanism would be enabled.

But he has since adopted Trump’s “relocate Gazans” plan, even as the US president has moved away from it.