Joe Scarborough Warns Israel’s Gaza Plans Will Spark ‘Tragic Quagmire’

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to take full control of Gaza will lead to a “tragic quagmire” and branded the move a “nightmare” for the families of those held hostage by Hamas.

In an interview with Fox News’ Bill Hemmer on Wednesday, Netanyahu said Israel plans to “control all of Gaza” temporarily, insisting his government doesn’t “want to keep Gaza.” He outlined a vision for a post-war security perimeter and said the goal is to eventually transfer governance to “Arab forces that will govern Gaza properly.”

On Thursday, Israel’s security cabinet approved Netanyahu’s proposal to occupy Gaza City in what could be the first stage of a broader military takeover.

Speaking on Friday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough noted the move would be considered by many as “disturbing”:

No doubt about it, there will be many, many people in the world community that find this a very disturbing move. There will be many people inside of Gaza obviously outraged by it, but I don’t think we can overstate how against this plan many generals and the IDF and Israel’s own military feel about this. They are against this.

They’ve been to Gaza before. They’ve tried to occupy it before. There’s a reason they gave it up in 2005. Same thing with the hostage families. This is a nightmare for the hostage families.

Many obviously upset that Netanyahu’s government hasn’t worked more aggressively on this front and releasing the hostages that Donald Trump was able to do with a couple of phone calls and a little bit of pressure – what Netanyahu had not been able to do.

But here you have a situation where Gaza is starving to death, and we’re hearing reports not only of atrocities committed against those that are trying to get that food and that aid from Israel, but we’re also hearing that Hamas is stopping a large percentage of trucks from coming in there.

So the question is, what would Israel do differently and how soon would these Arab states, who have been volunteering quietly behind the scenes to bring in peacekeeping forces – how long would that be? It seems like a long and tragic quagmire lying ahead for all sides here.

Watch above via MSNBC.